Market ends firm on IT-led surge

The market posted significant gains with buying, particularly, in IT and realty stocks, followed by decent gains in metal and other select counters jacking up the sentiment. However, the market witnessed sharp volatility within minutes of the commencement of the trading session. After resuming 35 points above its previous close of 17,051, the Sensex moved down 4 points and touched the day's low of 17,011. The index soon rebounded into positive territory on smart gains and rose sharply to an intra-day high of 17,425 in noon trades. While it moved in a range with a positive bias thereafter, the Sensex ended the session with gains of 363 points at 17,378. The Nifty moved up by 106 points to close at 5,196.

The market breadth was firm. Of the 2,770 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,586 stocks advanced, 1,121 stocks declined and 63 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, all the indices closed in positive territory. BSE Realty index rose 5.90%, the BSE IT index advanced 5.24% and the BSE Metal was up 3.64%. The BSE CD index, however, tumbled 2.31%, while the BSE CD, Teck and Oil & Gas index gained over 2% each. All the remaining indices gained ended with marginal gains.

IT pivotals among the index stocks led the upsurge. Tech Mahindra soared 10.51% at Rs902. While Satyam advanced 8.22% at Rs479.35, HCL Techno at Rs286.40, NIIT Technology moved up 7.27% at Rs137.95 and Infosys gained 5.15% at Rs1,750.75. Among the other movers of the IT Index, Mphasis added 4.97% at Rs237.55, Wipro scaled up 4.70% at Rs479.20, Patni Computer moved up by 4.70% at Rs479.20, Aptech rose 4.37% at Rs260.10, TCS climbed 3.15% at Rs910.80 and NIIT was up nearly 2.09% at Rs102.40.

Action was also seen in Sensex stocks. DLF flared up 8.57% at Rs725.85, Hindalco jumped by 6.44% at Rs198.20 and HDFC rose 5.95% at Rs2,881.45. Jaiprakash Associates at Rs266.10, Tata Steel at Rs808.90, SBI at Rs1,793, RIL at Rs2,653 and L&T at Rs3,007 gained 2-5% each.

Over 2.15 crore Reliance Natural Resources Ltd shares changed hands on the BSE followed by ISPAT Industries (1.71 crore shares), IFCI (1.56 crore shares), IB Securities (1.51 crore shares) and RPL (1.47 crore shares).

Reliance Capital clocked a turnover of Rs317 crore followed by Sesa Goa (Rs309 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs295 crore), Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (Rs270 crore) and RIL (Rs231 crore).