Sensex rallies on tech stocks

Today's rally was backed by an upsurge in technology stocks and positive global cues, and drove the benchmark indices almost 3% higher. Tracking firm Asian indices, the Sensex opened 155 points up its previous close and rallied sharply thereafter. As trading progressed, the mood turned extremely buoyant in the afternoon on hectic buying in information technology, oil and metal stocks that lifted the Sensex to the day's high of 15,340. Buying was also seen in a number of mid-cap and small-cap stocks. Buoyancy among heavyweights towards the close ensured that the Sensex remains near its day's high and end the session with a surge of 375 points at 15,308. The Nifty rose 106 points to close at 4,462.

The breadth of the market was positive. Out of a total of 2,724 stocks traded on the BSE today, 1,979 stocks posted gains, 697 stocks were down in the red and 48 stocks remained unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE IT index jumped 4.11% at 4,808 followed by the BSE Oil & Gas index (up 3.13% at 8,049), the BSE Teck index (up 3.06% at 3,747) and the BSE PSU index (up 2.39% at 7,177).

Barring Dr Reddy's and Cipla, all the Sensex heavyweights ended at higher levels. Among the tech stocks, Infosys shot up by 4.73% at Rs1,968, TCS soared 4.13% at Rs1,154, Wipro surged 3.60% at Rs476 and Satyam advanced by 3.52% at Rs479. Among other Sensex stocks, ACC added 3.98% at Rs1,025, Reliance Industries moved up 3.87% at Rs1,876, HDFC scaled up 3.72% at Rs2,047 and Ranbaxy was up 3.44% at Rs382. However, Dr Reddy's Lab and Cipla closed marginally lower.

Tech stocks closed with solid gains on the finance ministry’s tightening the rules for foreign borrowing by local firms and 1% fall in the rupee against dollar. HCL Tech vaulted 6.36% at Rs317, Mphasis soared 6.17% at Rs303, Tech Mahindra surged 3.41% at Rs1,283 and Moser Baer advanced by 1.79% at Rs296.

Over 1.76 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.50 crore shares), Suryachakra Power (1.45 crore shares), Nagarjuna Fertilizers (1.05 crore shares) and JP Hydro (1.01 crore shares).

Reliance Industries clocked a turnover of Rs264 crore on the BSE followed by Everonn Systems (Rs145 crore), Infosys (Rs127 crore), IFCI (Rs115 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs111 crore).