Sensex recovers on positive global cues

Tracking firm Asian markets the Sensex opened with a positive gap of 206 points and surged to touch the day's high of 18910 on sustained buying in heavyweights, power, metal and realty stocks. The market witnessed a small correction in the mid-morning trades but recovered on strong buying in the Sensex pivotal stocks. However, strong bout of selling in the afternoon wiped out most of the day's gains and the Sensex touched the day's low of 18548 marginally above its previous close. The sustained buying in the last hour of the trading session helped the market to pare most of its losses and close the session with a gain of 327 points at 18853. The Nifty ended the session at 5609, up 89 points.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,842 stocks traded on the BSE 1,763 stocks advanced, 1,032 stocks declined and 47 stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices ended in positive territory. The BSE Realty ended firm with gains of 3.45% at 9783 while the BSE Metal index rose 3.42% at 16594 and the BSE Power index added 3.16% at 4282.

Action in several index heavyweights lifted the market. Reliance Energy led the pack and shot up by 7.48% at Rs1725. DLF soared 5.58% at Rs869, HDFC surged 4.12% at Rs2,666, L&T flared up by 4.02% at Rs4101, NTPC jumped by 3.98% at Rs237, Tata Motors added 3.27% at Rs715, Reliance advanced by 3.03% at Rs2811 and Bajaj Auto moved up by 2.46% at Rs2533. However, few index stocks came under sharp selling pressure. Maruti Suzuki shed 2.07% at Rs947, HDFC Bank fell 1.97% at Rs1,563 while, Cipla, ITC, M&M, ONGC, Grasim and Ranbaxy dropped marginally.

Over 2.74 crore Allied Computers shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Tata Teleservices (2.51 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (1.74 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (1.63 crore shares) and Ispat Industries (1.11 crore shares).

Value-wise Reliance Petroleum registered a turnover of Rs366 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Energy (Rs291 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs252 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs232 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs202 crore).