Sensex ends firm at 17,600

The Market remained buoyant on strong FII inflows and lifted the Sensex past the 17,600 mark. Resuming on a positive note at 11,384, 273 points above its previous close of 17,287, the Sensex advanced further and surged past the 17,600 mark in the afternoon. A positive close in most of the Asian indices with gains of over 2% each triggered a major rally in heavyweight, bankex, auto and realty stocks that helped the index surge to an intra-day high of 17,621. The Sensex finally closed with gains of 313 points at 17,600, while the Nifty added 62 points to close at 5,228.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,767 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,396 stocks advanced, 1,300 stocks declined and 71 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Bankex index gained 3.66% followed by BSE Auto index, which was up 2.86%, BSE Realty index was up by 2.51%, BSE IT index rose up by 2.27% and BSE CG index surged up by 2.25%. BSE Power jumped by 1.92%, BSE Oil & Gas index moved up by 1.82%, BSE PSU moved up 1.13% and BSE Teck index was up by 1.00%. BSE CD index, BSE FMCG index and BSE HC index also ended the day in positive territory. However BSE Metal index ended the day in red and was down by 1.56%.

Leading the upsurge in the Sensex, Reliance Energy soared by 6.85% at Rs1,523.30. ICICI Bank advanced 6.38% at Rs935.50, Maruti rose 6.21% at Rs788, Jaiprakash advanced 5.77% at Rs286.95, L&T added 4.58% at Rs3,141.05, Tata Motors jumped 4.27% at Rs690.45 and Mahindra & Mahindra gained 2.98% at Rs690.35. Wipro advanced 2.78% at Rs502.20, State Bank of India rose 2.58% at Rs1,822.15, Satyam Computer Services advanced 2.47% at Rs494.10, TCS added 2.31% at Rs940.75, RIL jumped 2.29% at Rs2,674.85, DLF gained 2.11 % at Rs720.12, Infosys scaled up 2.04% at Rs1,789.50, NTPC moved up by 2.01% at Rs200.70 and HDFC Bank was up 1.59% at Rs1,538.95. However, Hindalco dropped 4% at Rs185.85, Reliance Communications was down by 3.20% at Rs561.20, while Tata Steel, Grasim, HDFC, Ambuja Cement, ACC, Cipla, Bharti Airtel and HUL also ended at lower levels.

Banks stocks rallied sharply. Federal Bank was among the major gainers and was up by 5.54% at Rs253.55, Bank of India surged 5.27% at Rs360.70, Kotak Bank soared 4.10% at Rs821.70, Karnataka Bank advanced 3.91% at Rs209.90, Indian Overseas jumped 3.14% at Rs152.85 and Allahabad Bank closed stronger by 3.08% at Rs87.05, SBI, Yes Bank, Union Bank, Centurion Bank of Punjab, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, Bank of Baroda and Andhara Bank were up by 1% each. However Punjab National Bank ended the day in red and was down by 1.74% at Rs541.30.

On the volume front, over 2.66 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by ISPAT Industries (1.24 crore shares), RNRL (1.13 crore shares), Kashyap (0.73 lakh shares) and Idea Cellular (0.69 lakh shares).