Sensex ends buoyant

Buoyancy in the Asian markets backed by strong quarterly results from Wipro and Satyam lifted the market sentiment. The Sensex began the trading session with a positive gap of 65 points at 13685. Initial buying lifted the Sensex above the 13800 level in the first half of the trading session. The index notched up further gains in the afternoon to touch a high of 13899. The Foreign Trade Policy announcement triggered a rally in the capital goods stocks on easing of obligations and the BSE CG Index gained almost 146 points for the day. The market remained firm in the afternoon though the inflation figure was slightly higher than the market expectation. Sustained buying towards the close ensured that the Sensex closed firm with gains of 278 points at 13897, while the Nifty closed at 4084, up 86 points.

Among the sectoral indices the BSE Metal Index led the upsurge with gains of 3.51% at 9702 followed by the BSE Oil & Gas Index (up 2.74% at 7052) and the BSE Teck Index (up 2.18% at 3722). The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,664 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,502 stocks advanced, 1,078 stocks declined and 84 stocks ended unchanged.

Out of the 30 Sensex stocks, 27 stocks closed in positive territory. Satyam Computer was the leading gainer and soared 6.33% at Rs476. Tata Steel surged 5.77% at Rs534, HDFC gained 5.52% at Rs1,651 and Reliance Communications added 4.97% at Rs456. Among the other major gainers Bharti Airtel rose 3.41% at Rs846, Reliance Industries gained 3.24% at Rs1,541, ONGC added 2.91% at Rs921 and L&T was up 2.08% at Rs1,695. Among the laggards Wipro dropped 1.40% at Rs571, HLL shed 0.80% at Rs206 and Hero Honda declined 0.74% at Rs650.

Metal stocks were the star performers. Jindal Stainless vaulted 6.85% at Rs140, SAIL surged 6.68% at Rs134, Shree Precoated Steels jumped 4.99% at Rs346, Jindal Steel advanced 4.66% at Rs2,642, Nalco spurted 3.01% at Rs243, Jindal Saw soared 2.36% at Rs548 and Hindustan Zinc was up 1.62% at Rs660.

Over 95.47 Idea Cellular shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Tata Teleservices (92.64 lakh shares), IFCI (92.53 lakh shares), Hindustan Oil Exploration (68.17 lakh shares) and GV Films (60.97 lakh shares).

Tata Steel registered a turnover of Rs241 crore on the BSE followed by Advanta (Rs177 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs134 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs130 crore) and Unitech (Rs129 crore).