Market ends steady

Taking a strong cue from the uptrend in global markets, the market witnessed sharp upward movement on the back of wide-spread buying support. Shrugging off the recent lacklustre trading trend, the Sensex opened 146 points above its previous close at 15,695 and made significant headway through the trading session. While the sentiment remained buoyant, the Sensex witnessed unprecedented rally towards the close and soared to an intra-day high of 15,957, up 289 points from the day's low. The Sensex finally ended 113 points higher at 15,808, while the Nifty advanced 45 points to close at 4,778.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,749 stocks traded on the BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange), 1,630 stocks advanced, 1,058 stocks declined and 61 stocks ended unchanged.

The BSE CG index led the sectoral indices pack, with gains of 2.86% followed by the BSE Oil & Gas index (up 2.82%), the BSE Power index (up 2.08%), the BSE PSU (up 1.61%), the BSE Metal index (up 0.80%), the BSE CD index (up 0.61%), the BSE Auto index (up 0.54%) and the BSE Teck index (up 0.17%).

Heavyweights BHEL flared up 3.67% at Rs1,829.95, Larsen & Toubro advanced 3.57% at Rs2,774, RIL zoomed 3.34% at Rs2,550.05, Satyam appreciated by 2.30% at Rs433.20, Reliance Energy scaled up 2.22% at Rs1,281 and Reliance Communications moved up 1.83% at Rs493.25. Hindalco, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, TCS, Bharti Airtel, Jaiprakash Associates, SBI and NTPC closed in positive territory.

Capital goods stocks were in the limelight. Areva, Kirloskar Oil, Thermax, Punj Lloyd, BHEL, Siemens, ABB, Kirloskar Brother and Bharat Elect India advanced 1.6% each.

Oil stocks, too, were in demand following a slump in international crude oil prices. Aban Offshore, Cairn India, Gail India, Essar Oil, Reliance Petroleum, Reliance Industries, Bharat Petroleum, IOC, HPCL and RNRL shot up 0.50-6% each.

Sanket International at Rs12.50, Gujarat Foil at Rs133.10 and SEL Manufacturing Company at Rs416.55, touched new all-time highs on the BSE. While Jet Airways at Rs459.90 and Parle Software at Rs210 touched new all-time lows.

Elpro International at Rs712.80, Bharat Rasayan at Rs58.70, Bamspal Securities at Rs1.27, Mobile Telecom at Rs4.97, Standard India at Rs57.05 and Koa Tools at Rs1.11 hit the upper circuit on the BSE.

Over 1.80 crore RPL shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Vijaya Bank (1.37 crore shares), Sita Shree Food products (1.24 crore shares), Orchid Chemical (1.16 crore shares) and RNRL ( 1.04 crore shares).