Sensex storms past 19K as capital goods rally

Continuing on a cautious note, the market witnessed another round of selling as the Sensex lost over 141 points form the previous day's close to touch the intra-day low of 18630. However, the market recovered thereafter as brisk buying in front-line shares pushed the benchmark index to an all-time high of 19,275. Capital goods stocks led the rally after sector heavyweight Larsen and Toubro posted a whopping 73% rise in net profit from the previous quarter. Stocks also rallied as the Securities and Exchange Board of India had dispelled confusion on curbs on P-notes yesterday. The Sensex finally closed near its all-time high with a gain of 472 points at 19243, while the Nifty ended the session by adding 133 point at 5702.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,833 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,737 stocks advanced, 1,028 stocks declined and 68 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE CG Index was the major gainer and rose 7.08% followed by the BSE PSU Index that added 3.93% and the BSE Bankex Index that gained 3.52%. However, the BSE FMCG Index shed 0.28%.

Among the major gainers, L&T jumped 12.40% at Rs3,885, SBI added 7.53% at Rs2,091, BHEL shot up by 6.35% at Rs2,435, ONGC flared up 4.12% at Rs1,160, M&M moved up 3.82% at Rs802, ICICI Bank advanced 3.81% at Rs1,190, Satyam Computer scaled up 3.68% at Rs477 and Reliance Industries surged 2.42% at Rs2,692. However, Bharti Airtel dropped 2.66% at Rs993, ITC slipped 1.42% at Rs180, HLL fell 1.34% at Rs218 and Ranbaxy shed 1.15% at Rs425.

Capital goods stocks were in the limelight today. Laxmi Machine Works flared up 14.98% to Rs3,171, Crompton Greaves rose 7.44% at Rs420 and Kalpataru Power scaled up 6.81% at Rs1,795.

Over 2.75 crore Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Himachal Futuristic Communication (2.05 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (2.03 crore shares), Tata Teleservices (1.57 crore shares) and Power Grid Corporation (1.46 crore shares).

Value-wise L&T clocked a turnover of Rs433 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs404 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs363 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs272 crore) and Reliance Energy (Rs265 crore).