Market rallies on the back of firm Asian markets

The market followed the rally in Asian markets after comments by US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke rose hopes of further cuts in interest rates. Better-than-expected July-September GDP numbers of India also boosted the market sentiment. The market opened on a positive note at 19,136, up 133 points and strong optimism among investors kept the Sensex firm above the 19,200 mark for the better part of the session. In the last hour of the trading session the buoyancy among front-line metal, realty, information technology, and oil stocks lifted the Sensex to touch the day's high of 19,425. The market remained buoyant thereafter and finally ended the session with a gain of 360 points at 19,363, while the Nifty closed the session at 5,763, up 128 points.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,860 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE0, 1,746 stocks advanced, 1,056 stocks declined and 59 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Metal index jumped 5.09% at 17,731 followed by the BSE Realty index (up 3.94% at 10,626), the BSE IT index (up 2.74% at 4,198) and the BSE Oil & Gas index (up 2.62% at 12,360).

Most of the heavyweights ended at higher levels. On the Sensex, DLF shot up by 7.04% at Rs944, Reliance Energy soared 4.47% at Rs1,738, TCS surged 3.81% at Rs1,014, HDFC advanced by 3.59% at Rs2,785, Satyam Computer added 3.37% at Rs440, Tata Steel moved up 2.94% at Rs826, Bharti Airtel scaled up 2.60% at Rs939 and ONGC was up 2.59% at Rs1,171. Among the laggards, HLL dropped 1.45% at Rs207, while Ambuja Cement, Bajaj Auto and BHEL closed marginally lower.

Metal stocks were in the limelight and closed with strong gains. Sterlite Industries jumped by 12.58% at Rs1,035, Welspun Gujrat soared 9.18% at Rs419, Ispat Industries surged 6.63% at Rs51, Jindal Steel added 6.15% at Rs13,508, Sesa Goa gained 5.80% at Rs3,453 and JSW Steel advanced by 4.42% at Rs1,009.

Over 3.39 crore Ispat Industries shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (2.81 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (2.59 crore shares), Essar Oil (2.08 crore shares) and IFCI (1.83 crore shares).

Reliance Petroleum clocked a turnover of Rs568 crore on the BSE followed by Essar Oil (Rs491 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs459 crore), Mundra Port (Rs282 crore) and Reliance Energy (Rs218 crore).