Markets pull back

The bulls were back in action after successive days of battering, as the market taking a cue from the buoyant international indices registered phenomenal gains on the back of an all-round buying support. Starting the day (at 10,818) 290 points above its previous close, strong buying led by heavyweights, banking, capital goods, and consumer durable stocks triggered a major rally that propelled the index to an intra-day high of 11,361 in the afternoon trades. Though the Sensex held firm ground above 11,200 for the better part of the trading session, it finally ended at 11,337, up 804 points. The Nifty advanced 211 points to close at 3,491.

Among the gainers in heavyweights, Reliance Communications soared 19.92% at Rs284.70, Reliance Infrastructure flared up 17.13% at Rs603.55, ICICI Bank jumped 16.71% at Rs424.95, Sterlite Industries scaled up 15.99% at Rs318.10, HDFC Bank surged 12.58% at Rs1,178, State Bank of India added 12.19% at Rs1517, Mahindra & Mahindra jumped 11.78% at Rs520, BHEL advanced 11.61% and Larsen & Toubro gained 11.35% at Rs990.05. The remaining Sensex stocks gained above 5-6% each. However, Ranbaxy Laboratories and ONGC eased marginally.

The market breadth was extremely positive, Of the 2,672 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,687 stocks advanced whereas 926 stocks declined. Fifty nine stocks ended unchanged. On the sectoral front, the BSE Bankex led the gainers pack and surged 12.51% at 5,985 followed by BSE CG (up 10.36% at 8,810), BSE CD (up 10.26% at 2,359), BSE Power (up 9.08% at 2,023), BSE Realty (up 8.99% at 2,750) and BSE Teck (up 8.72% at 2,296).

More than 1.86 crore shares of Core Projects and Technologies changed hands on the BSE followed by Chemcel Bio-Tech (1.69 crore shares), ICICI Bank (1.12 crore shares), Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals (0.97 crore shares) and IFCI (82 lakh shares).

Valuewise, ICICI Bank registered a turnover of Rs486 crore followed by Reliance Industries (Rs242 crore), Core Projects and Technologies (Rs153 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs153 crore), and State Bank of India (Rs151 crore).