Market rebounds, scales above 16,150

The market witnessed a dramatic turnaround in early noon trades, as a change of guard from lower levels helped the index scale above 16,150 at close and clock gains of more than 340 points after the second session of the trading. The Sensex in the first half however traded exactly the opposite of what it did in the second half. It resumed 114 points lower at 15,694 and shed another 121 points to slip below the 15,600 mark and touch the day's low of 15,573 amid weak US and Asian markets. While the market languished in negative territory and was on a recovery mode thereafter, the index rolled back into green in noon trades and surged to an intra-day high of 16,249 on fresh buoyancy in heavyweights, IT, Technology and health care stocks. The Sensex finally signed off the session with gains of 2.19% or 346 points at 16,154, while the Nifty advanced 2.13% or 102 points to close at 4,880.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,709 stocks traded on the BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange), 1,789 stocks advanced, 872 stocks declined and 48 stocks ended unchanged. Out of 13 sectoral indices, all indices ended higher. The BSE IT index scaled up by 5.55% followed by the BSE Teck index (up 4.08%), the BSE HC index (up 3.32%) and the BSE CD index (up 2.78%). However, the BSE Auto and the BSE Metal index ended with marginal gains.

Heavyweights spurred the late rally and notched up significant gains. Ranbaxy Laboratories soared 8.62% at Rs481.80, TCS advanced 7.37% at Rs975.10, Infosys added 6.21% at Rs1,510.80, Reliance Communications scaled up 5.38% at Rs519.80, Wipro rose 4.52% at Rs424.65 and HUL jumped 4.36% at Rs245.40. Satyam Computer, DLF, NTPC, ONGC, ICICI Bank, RIL, Cipla and Jaiprakash Associates gained over 2% each. Among the laggards Hindalco dropped 1.59% at Rs173.55, HDFC Bank lost 0.95% at Rs1,315.25, Ambuja Cement declined by 0.89% at Rs116.55, HDFC was marginally down at Rs1,264 and ACC lost 0.24% at Rs810.65.

IT stocks registered strong gains in the late rally. Mphasis advanced 7.10% at Rs226.95, HCL Technology gained 6.78% at Rs245.80. Patni Computers, I-Flex, Tech Mahindra, Rolta India and NIIT were up over 3% each. Among the Teck stocks Zee News, HFCL, WWIL, Adlabs Films, Deecan, Aptech, flared up over 1.7% each.

Over 2.27 crore RNRL shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Orchid Chemical (1.65 crore shares), RPL (1.59 crore shares), Sita Shree Food Products (1.42 crore shares) and BL Kashyap (1.33 crore shares).

Orchid Chemicals was the most actively traded counter on the BSE with a turnover of Rs453 crore followed by RIL (Rs373 crore), RPL (Rs299 crore), RNRL (Rs233 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs196 crore).