Sensex 18,000 Hurray!

The market was back on track after slipping over 280 points yesterday. Following weak Asian markets, the Sensex opened marginally lower at 17,402 and slipped further to touch the day's low of 17,287, down 204 points to its previous close. The market soon overcame the early hitch and made steady progress before a strong bout of buying lifted the index past 18,000 level. The Sensex climbed 1,000 points from 17,000 in eight sessions only. The market thereafter rallied sharply and touched the lifetime high of 18,327, up 1,040 points from its day's low. The Sensex closed with gains of 4.51% and was up 789 points at 18,280, while the Nifty rose 4.76% and gained 242 points to close at 5,327.

The market breadth was firm, with the gainers outpacing the losers in the ratio of 1.86:1. Of the 2,782 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 1,766 stocks advanced, 947 stocks declined and 69 stocks ended unchanged. While the BSE Oil & Gas index and the BSE Realty index gained over 5-6%, the rest of the sectoral indices jumped over 2-4% each.

All the 30 stocks of Sensex closed in the green. Reliance Energy was the star performer and surged 11.17% at Rs1,534. Reliance Communication spurted 10.13% at Rs706, Maruti Udyog scaled up 7.80% at Rs1,105, Reliance Industries soared 7.59% at Rs2,600, NTPC advanced 6.38% at Rs218, SBI moved up by 6.01% at Rs1,889 and Tata Steel added 5.78% at Rs835.

Oil & gas stocks registered significant gains. Reliance Petroleum surged 6.72% at Rs161, Gail soared 5.69% at Rs385, ONGC firmed up by 4.85% at Rs985 and BPCL added 3.69% at Rs386.

Over 3.61 crore Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI (2.76 crore shares), Power Grid Corporation (2.63 crore shares), Tata Teleservices (2.41 crore shares) and Ispat Industries (2.13 crore shares).

Reliance Energy was the most actively traded counter on the BSE and registered a turnover of Rs440 crore followed by Reliance Communication (Rs407 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs355 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs313 crore) and Reliance Natural Resources (Rs306 crore).