Market rallies past 14200

The market witnessed a sharp pullback, as short covering triggered a major rally in heavyweight, fast moving consumer goods, banking and auto stocks. After yesterday's rally, the market opened on a weak note tracking the mixed global indices at 14142, down five points. As the rupee strengthened against the dollar, information technology stocks came under selling pressure, dragging down the Sensex to an intra-day low of 14052. However, the resumption of buying in late afternoon trades saw the index move into positive territory and gain strength thereafter. The index surpassed the 14200 level in the afternoon and touched an intra-day high of 14238. The Sensex closed at 14218, up 81 points. The Nifty closed with gains of 25 points at 4167.

Among the sectoral indices the BSE FMCG Index notched up gains of 2.52% at 1838 followed by the BSE HC Index (up 1.72% at 3832), the BSE Oil & Gas Index (up 1.38% at 7303), the BSE Auto Index (up 1.22 at 4942) and the BSE Bankex (up 1.06% at 7237). However, the BSE IT Index, the BSE Metal Index and the BSE Tech Index closed in negative territory. The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,599 scrips traded on the BSE 1,460 stocks advanced, 1,061stocks declined and 78 stocks ended unchanged.

Out of the 30 Sensex stocks, 18 stocks ended in the green. Pharma major Ranbaxy was the major gainer and soared 5.71% at Rs369. Cipla advanced 5.41% at Rs252, Hero Honda added 3.98% at Rs687, ITC jumped 3.39% at Rs162, Grasim surged 2.58% at Rs2,442, ONGC added 2.55% at Rs973, HDFC was up 2.45% at Rs1,752, Tata Motors rose 2.14% at Rs759, HLL gained 1.96% at Rs211 and ACC was up 1.91% at Rs833. Among the laggards Infosys dropped 1.96% at Rs2,018, Satyam Computer shed 1.79% at Rs466, Tata Steel declined 1.43% at Rs571 and Bharti Airtel lost 1.25% at Rs863.

Among the fast moving consumer goods stocks, Tata Tea vaulted 14.79% at Rs773, Marico surged 2.56% at Rs58, Colgate added 1.96% at Rs211, Nestle advanced 1.56% at Rs1,001, Britannia gained 1.47% at Rs1,280.

Over 1.93 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.07 crore shares), GV Films (83.57 lakh shares), Tata Teleservices (75.97 lakh shares) and Nagarjuna Fertiliser (73.22 lakh shares).

TCS registered a turnover of Rs330 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Industries (Rs138 crore), GTL (Rs121 crore), Hexaware (Rs118 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs106 crore).