Sensex ends above 17k; ACC soars

The Sensex ended sharply higher led by banking, oil & gas and metal stocks. It opened flat with negative bias with a loss of 12.90 points, at 16,772.75 on Friday tracking poor global cues and continued to trade in the red on the back of sustained selling seen in bluechip stocks, touching a low of 16,635.75. However the index recovered and moved into the positive terrain, thus regaining psychological 17,000 mark to finally close on a strong note after hitting a high of 17,041.79. Opening of positive European market supported the upmove.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap index rose 1.08% and 0.43% respectively.

On global front, European stocks advanced as the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index rebounded from the steepest retreat this month. UK`s benchmark index FTSE 100 rose 22.67 points, or 0.43%, to trade at 5,290.37. French benchmark index CAC 40 climbed 13.94 points or 0.37% to trade at 3,774.15. Germany`s benchmark index DAX gained 20.77 points or 0.36% to trade at 5,722.95. (4.20 pm)

Asian stocks fell for a fourth day, the longest losing streak since July, after Sony Corp. pushed back its profitability targets and Dell posted lower-than- estimated earnings. Japanese benchmark index Nikkei 225 fell 51.79 points, or 0.54%, to end at 9,497.68. Hong Kong`s Hang Seng is declined 187.32 points, or 0.83%, to end at 22,455.84. China`s Shanghai Composite decreased 12.27 points, or 0.37% to end at 3,308.35.

The Sensex ended the day with a gain of 236.20 points, or 1.41% at 17,021.85 after touching a high of 17,041.79 and a low of 16,635.75. The broad-based NSE Nifty climbed 63.45 points, or 1.27% at 5,052.45 after hitting a high of 5,063.30 and a low of 4,932.80.

Major gainers in the 30-share index were ACC (4.55%), Hindalco Industries (3.47%), Jaiprakash Associates (2.73%), Tata Steel (2.66%), Housing Development Finance Corporation (2.58%), and Mahindra & Mahindra (2.47%).

On the other hand, Reliance Capital (2.76%), Bharti Airtel (1.40%), Reliance Infrastructure (0.62%), Maruti Suzuki India (0.26%), and Bharat Heavy Electricals (0.06%) were the major losers in the Sensex.

Overall market breadth was positive. Out of the total 2,790 stocks traded at BSE, 1,452 advanced, 1,240 declined while 98 remained unchanged.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Bankex which climbed 1.95%, Oil & Gas rose 1.52%, Metal went up 1.37%, HC climbed 0.96% and IT climbed 0.87%, while BSE Consumer Durables declined 1.35%.