Sensex gains 26 points

The key indices today touched new record highs with the Nifty touching an all-time high of 4325 and the Sensex crossing its 14600 level again. The market resumed at 14610 on firm global cues with the fall in inflation rates lending further support. While the mood remained upbeat on strong buying in information technology (IT), banking and capital goods stocks, the rally gathered more steam in the afternoon trades as the Sensex touched the high of 14682. The market witnessed a steady decline towards the closing hours to slip below the 14600 mark and touched an intra-day low of 14540. The Sensex finally closed the session with marginal gains of 26 points at 14571, while the Nifty ended the session by adding one point at 4297.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,655 stocks traded on the BSE 1,369 stocks advanced, 1,190 stocks declined and 96 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE IT Index was the major gainer and rose 1.17% followed by the BSE Bankex Index that added 0.99%. The BSE CD Index lost 1.05%, the BSE FMCG Index slipped 0.88% and the BSE Oil & Gas Index shed 0.21%.

Among the major gainers, Cipla flared up 3.01% at Rs224, Satyam Computer added 1.90% at Rs479, SBI shot up by 1.90% at Rs1,378, HDFC Bank flared up 1.65% at Rs1,159, Gujarat Ambuja Cement moved up 1.28% at Rs115, BHEL advanced 1.10% at Rs1,414, Infosys scaled up 1.03% at Rs1,940 and ICICI Bank surged 1% at Rs928. However, Hero Honda dropped 2.08% at Rs717, Tata Motors slipped 1.37% at Rs747 and ITC shed 1.31% at Rs161.

IT stocks were in the limelight today. GTL flared up 7.67% to Rs210, Geometric Software rose 6.06% at Rs125, EduComp scaled up 5.59% at Rs1,876, Four Software added 5.21% at Rs58 and Subex Azure added 5.04% at Rs607.

Over 75.43 lakh Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands on the BSE followed by MIC Electric (70.14 lakh shares), Petronet LNG (68.44 lakh shares), Himachal Futuristic (60.35 lakh shares) and Indiabulls Real Estate (59.82 lakh shares).

Value-wise MIC Electric clocked a turnover of Rs281 crore followed by Indiabulls Real Estate (Rs243 crore), SBI (Rs99 crore), Unitech (Rs86 crore) and Reliance Industries (Rs80 crore).