Sensex continues its winning streak

The Sensex, which has been maintaining a firm tone for the last seven days, posted its longest winning streak of eight days in last 16 months, today. The index added another 43 points and closed at 15,465 on sustained buying in heavyweights, cement and pharma stocks. The market opened firm at 15,479 despite mixed Asian cues and continued its rally to touch the intra-day high of 15,521. The index also received major support from Reliance Energy, Cipla and Grasim which gained around 3-6% today. However, profit bookings at higher levels and selling in few pivotal stocks dragged the Sensex into the negative territory to touch the day's low of 15,390. The market remained choppy in the afternoon, but recovered on late round buying and ended firm. The broad based Nifty closed at 4,479, up five points.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,790 stocks traded on the BSE 1,744 stocks advanced, 991 stocks declined and 55 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Realty ended firm with gains of 1.87% at 7,462 and the BSE HC index rose 1.35% at 3,680. However, the BSE Auto index, the BSE CD index, the BSE FMCG index, the BSE Metal index, the BSE PSU index and the BSE Teck index ended weak.

Action in several index heavyweights lifted the market. Reliance Energy led the pack and shot up by 5.98% at Rs823. Cipla soared 4.45% at Rs180, Grasim surged 2.98% at Rs3,023, HDFC flared up by 2.96% at Rs2,060, Ranbaxy jumped by 2.66% at Rs407, ACC added 2.47% at Rs1,098, Maruti Udyog advanced by 1.49% at Rs894, Ambuja Cement moved up by 1.45% at Rs136 and Infosys was up 1.44% at Rs1,889. However, NTPC at Rs181, Hindalco at Rs157, Wipro at Rs466, Tata Motors at Rs691 and Bhel at Rs1,911 dropped around 1-2% each.

Over 2.09 crore Nagarjuna Fertilisers shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI (1.98 crore shares), IKF Technologies (1.70 crore shares), JCT (1.34 crore shares) and Reliance Natural Resources (1.32 crore shares).

Value-wise, Take Solutions registered a turnover of Rs422 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Energy (Rs190 crore), IFCI (Rs140 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs107 crore) and Everonn Systems (Rs97 crore)