Sensex scales new peak

Sensex was up early and held on the gains right till the closing bell for the second consecutive day led by gains in metal, auto and consumer durable stocks.

The market resumed on a strong note backed by positive global cues and strong investor appetite for heavyweights. Sensex quickly breached 16500 levels in early trades and held on the gains. Relentless buying in front-line stocks towards the close helped the index to touch to intra-day high of 16701, up 246 points. Sensex finally wrapped the session 223 points higher at 16677. Nifty closed the session at 4958 by adding 66 points.

Advancing scrips outdid the declining ones. On the BSE 1,575 stocks advanced, whereas 1243 stocks declined. Sixty four stocks ended unchanged. All the sectors were up for the day with BSE Metal (metal index), BSE Auto and BSE CD (consumer durable index) topped the chart posting gains of 4.20%, 2.23% and 2.17% respectively.

Several index heavyweights chipped in for today’s rise. Fifth largest steel maker Tata Steel led the pack shooting up 8.21% to Rs531.60. India’s largest truck maker Tata Motors soared 6.22% to Rs604.65, India’s largest aluminium maker Hindalco Industries surged 4.96% to Rs131.30, largest public sector lender State Bank of India flared up by 4.00% to Rs2,089.60, largest copper maker Sterlite Industries added 3.71% to quote at Rs771.05. World’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero Honda Motors advanced 3.65% to Rs1,674.10, cement major ACC gained 3.22% to trade at Rs 798.80, Conglomerate Grasim Industries moved up 3.05% to Rs2,691.90 and private sector lender ICICI Bank surged 3.00% to Rs 867.55. However, FMCG major Hindustan Uniliver, Wipro, Reliance Infrastructure, HDFC, ONGC and Tata Consultancy Services were down marginally.

Metal stocks rallied sharply. Tata Steel shot up 8.21% to Rs531.60, SAIL India soared 6.98% to Rs179.40, JSW Steel flared up by 5.67% to Rs809.25.

Over 2.03 crore shares of Ispat Industries changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI (1.64 crore shares), Suzlon Energy (1.00 crore shares), Unitech (98.42 lakh shares) and Tata Steel (61.10 lakh shares).