Market ends buoyant

The Sensex began the trading session on a firm note on positive global cues, a fall in the inflation rate and on expectations that after Infosys another technology giant TCS might post strong earnings. The Sensex posted strong gains of over 212 points in early trades on sustained buying in information technology, oil and banking stocks. The action in several counters held the market firm above the 13600 level in the afternoon. Buoyancy in heavyweight, oil, capital goods, metal and fast moving consumer goods stocks towards the close saw the index surge to an intra-day high of 13708. The Sensex ended the session with gains of 311 points at 13696, while the Nifty added 96 points and closed at 4013.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,654 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,798 stocks advanced, 780 stocks declined and 76 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE Oil & Gas Index surged 3.11% at 6769 followed by the BSE CG Index (up 2.90% at 9746), the BSE Metal Index (up 2.62% at 9561) and the BSE Teck Index (up 2.16% at 3717).

Except HDFC Bank and Satyam Computers all the Sensex heavyweights ended at higher levels. ACC gained 5.14% at Rs787, Tata Steel soared 4.33% at Rs533, Grasim surged 3.90% at Rs2,377, Reliance Communications advanced 3.63% at Rs437, ITC added 3.56% at Rs159, Reliance Industries gained 3.50% at Rs1,460, Gujarat Ambuja advanced 3.41% at Rs112 and Tata Motors was up 3.40% at Rs750. However HDFC Bank at Rs972 and Satyam Computers at Rs479 closed with small losses.

Oil & Gas stocks closed with strong gains. Petronet LNG gained 3.22% at Rs46, ONGC soared 3.17% at Rs899, Essar Oil surged 2.56% at Rs54 and IOC advanced 2.38% at Rs402. BPCL, HPCL, GAIL, Reliance Natural Resources and Reliance Petroleum were up 1-2% each.

Over 1.03 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Orbit Corporation (1.01 crore shares), Tata Teleservices (83.64 lakh shares), Reliance Natural Recourses (52.15 lakh shares) and Vishal Exports (50.29 lakh shares).

ICRA clocked a turnover of Rs303 crore on the BSE followed by Orbit Corporation (Rs174 crore), Tata Steel (Rs128 crore), India Bulls (Rs93 crore) and Reliance Industries (Rs93 crore).