Market ends buoyant

The 30-stock Sensex remained firm today on the back of firm Asian markets. The market opened on a positive note, tracking positive global cues at 9,822 up 132 points. The strong optimism among traders kept the Sensex above 9,900 mark. In mid-morning trades, buoyancy among frontline, realty, metal and consumer durable stocks lifted the Sensex to touch the day's high of 9,948. The market remained buoyant thereafter, but the 9,900 mark continued to elude the Sensex. The Sensex finally ended the session with a gain of 142 points at 9,832 while the Nifty closed the session at 2,981 up 60 points.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,572 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,937 stocks advanced, whereas 555 stocks declined. Eighty stocks ended unchanged. Among sectoral indices, BSE Realty jumped 5.53% followed by BSE Metal (up 5.19%), BSE CD (up 4.90%) and BSE PSU index (up 3.49%).

Most heavyweights ended higher. Among blue chips, Grasim Industries shot up by 9.32% at Rs1,173.70, Hindalco Industries soared 5.86% at Rs56, Sterlite Industries surged 5.07% at Rs307.70, Larsen & Toubro advanced 4.24% at Rs820.40, Tata Steel added 4.22% at Rs227.10, ONGC moved up 4.09% at Rs672.90, ACC scaled up 3.87% at Rs513.35 and Mahindra & Mahindra was up 3.50% at Rs303. Among laggards, Reliance Communications dropped 4.09% at Rs239, Tata Consultancy Services slipped 2.62% at Rs469.60 and Wipro shed 2.49% at Rs469.60 while Wipro, HDFC, State Bank of India and Infosys Technologies closed marginally lower.

Realty stocks were in limelight and closed with strong gains. HDIL jumped 16.65% at Rs127.15, Orbit Corporation soared 12.95% at Rs61.05, Ansal Infrastructure surged 11.88% at Rs33.90, Unitech added 10.50% at Rs37.90, Phoenix Mills gained 9.28% at Rs74.45 and Omaxe advanced by 9.28% at Rs60.65.

Over 3.51 crore shares of Reliance Natural Resources changed hands on BSE followed by Unitech (2.29 crore shares), IFCI (2.24 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (1.50 crore shares) and GVK Power & Infrastructure (1.46 crore shares).

Reliance Industries clocked a turnover of Rs504 crore on BSE followed by State Bank of India (Rs234 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs206 crore), DLF (Rs193 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs145 crore).