Last minute buying lifts market

The market witnessed a sharp pull-back after short covering by investors triggered a major rally in heavyweight, tech and banking stocks. The firm close in Asian markets also helped the market to recover from its lows. The Sensex shot past 17,000 mark for the first time in early trades today led by software stocks after easier rules to invest abroad rose expectations despite the rupee's appreciation against the dollar. Despite breaching its previous high, the Sensex slipped on substantial selling to touch the day's low of 16,887 in the last hour of the trading. However, resumption of buying towards the close saw the Sensex gain strength before closing with a gain of 22 points at 16,921 on selective buying. The Nifty closed by adding two points at 4,941.

The market breadth was positive. Of 2,815 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 1,492 stocks advanced, 1,262 stocks declined and 61 stocks ended unchanged. The BSE IT index led the surge in the sectoral indices and rose 6.53% at 4,502. The BSE Bankex index, the BSE Teck index and the BSE PSU index were the other notable gainers while the BSE Oil & Gas Index, the BSE Realty index, the BSE FMCG index, the BSE CG index, the BSE CD index and the BSE Auto index ended weak.

Buying was led by Satyam Computer, which notched up gains of 4.81% at Rs431. Among the other gainers, Wipro advanced by 4.33% at Rs455, TCS added 3.88% at Rs1,041, HDFC moved up 3.45% at Rs2,477, Infosys jumped by 3% at Rs1,824, ICICI Bank gained 2.96% at Rs1,019 and SBI was up 2.45% at Rs1,848. However, Reliance Energy, Reliance Industries, Maruti Udyog, NTPC, HDFC Bank, M&M, Hindalco and ITC were down 1-5% each.

A sharp rally was witnessed in IT stocks today. Patni Computer soared 7.60% at Rs475, HCL Technologies scaled up 5.81% at Rs297, Rolta surged 5.08% at Rs591 and Tech Mahindra moved up 3.81% at Rs1,322.

Over 5.31 crore Tata Teleservices shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Himachal Futuristics (3.41 crore shares), Ispat Industries (2.37crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (2.29 crore shares) and Manglore Refinery (2.13 crore shares).

Valuewise, Praj Industries registered a turnover of Rs387 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Industries (Rs274 crore), Tata Teleservices (Rs233 crore), Indiabulls Real Estate (Rs228 crore) and Reliance Natural Resources (Rs213 crore).