Market extends its winning streak

The market extended its winning streak for the ninth consecutive session as firm Asian indices and strong buying in frontline stocks helped the sentiment remain bullish for the better part of the trading session. After accumulating over 1,200 points in the last eight sessions, the Sensex opened marginally above its previous close and rallied sharply to touch the all-time high of 17,361. While, the market remained well above 17,300 mark in the first half, it came off the high as traders booked profits at higher levels. However, resumption of buying at lower levels in banking and metal stocks towards the close saw the Sensex recover from its low. The Sensex finally ended the session with a gain of 141 points at 17,291, while the Nifty added 21 points to close at 5,021.

The market breadth was neutral. Of the 2,838 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,377 stocks advanced, 1,397 stocks declined and 64 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE Metal index jumped 3.28% at 13,945 followed by the BSE Bankex index (up 2.60% at 6,469), the BSE FMCG index (up 1.94% at 2,161) and the BSE HC index (up 1.72% at 3,784).

Most of the heavyweights ended with solid gains, however, select frontline stocks closed with marginal losses. Among the blue chips, Reliance Energy shot up by 7.90% at Rs1,205, Tata Steel soared 7.02% at Rs850, Hindalco surged 4.81% at Rs172 and Tata Motors advanced by 3.68% at Rs778. Cipla added 3.52% at Rs182, SBI moved up 3.43% at Rs1,951, Ranbaxy scaled up 3.33% at Rs434 and ICICI Bank was up 3.29% at Rs1,063. Among the laggards Bharti Airtel dropped 2% at Rs941,ONGC shed 1.42% at Rs958 and Reliance Industries slipped 1.03% at Rs2,296.

Metal stocks shone in today's trades and closed with strong gains. Sesa Goa vaulted 7.13% at Rs2,524, Tata Steel soared 7.02% at Rs850, Hindlalco surged 4.81% at Rs172 and Jindal Stainless advanced by 3.89% at Rs170.

Over 4.33 crore Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IKF Technology (3.01 crore shares), Himachal Futuristic Communication (2.92 crore shares), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (2.80 crore shares) and Ispat Industries (2.34 crore shares).

Sintex Industries clocked a turnover of Rs501 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Energy (Rs416 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs369 crore), Tata Steel (Rs273 crore) and Reliance Industries (Rs215 crore).