Sensex up on US interest rate-cut hope

A firming global trend and persistent buying in frontline stocks saw the Sensex surge to the day's high of 19,297. Yesterday, US markets rose for the second day in a row on the hope that US Federal Reserve may cut the interest rate to strengthen the economy. Tracking the same the Asian indices also rose over 2-4% each. After registering a loss of over 180 points yesterday, the market resumed with a positive gap of 352 points at 19,291. The Sensex remained firm thereafter but within a range. But, some profit booking towards the close dragged the Sensex to its day's low of 18,930. However, late buying in index pivotal stocks lifted the Sensex to end the session with a gain of 64 points at 19,003, while the Nifty closed its session by adding 17 points at 5,635.

The market breadth was negative. Of the 2,857 stocks that traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 1,468 stocks declined, 1,317 stocks advanced and 72 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Bankex index moved up by 2.04% followed by the BSE CD index (up 1.67%) and the BSE Realty (up 1.54%). However, the BSE Power index, the BSE CG index, the BSE FMCG index, the BSE HC index, the BSE Metal index and the BSE Teck index closed in negative territory.

Among the index heavyweights, banking majors registered solid gains. HDFC Bank flared up by 4.30% at Rs1,677 and ICICI Bank spurted 3.15% at Rs1,162, while Maruti Suzuki scaled up 2.46% at Rs990, M&M soared 1.47% at Rs720, and Reliance Industries advanced 1.15% at Rs2,818. However, Bajaj Auto tumbled 4.68% at Rs2,600, Ranbaxy slipped 2.67% at Rs379, Reliance Energy fell 2.37% at Rs1,664, Tata Steel was down 2.02% at Rs802 and Reliance Communication lost 1.98% at Rs665.

Over 5.56 crore Reliance Petroleum shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Gujrat Petronet LNG (2.42 crore shares), Ispat industries (2.11 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (1.31 crore shares) and Tata Teleservices (1.19 crore shares).

IFCI was the most actively traded counter on the BSE and registered a turnover of Rs137 crore followed by Meghmani Organics (Rs132 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs110 crore), SBI (Rs108 crore) and Orbit Organic (Rs131 crore).