Indices end on a firm note

Buoyed by a sharp recovery in Asian indices and an overnight gains in the US market, the domestic indices also showed strong optimism after sliding sharply in the last week's trades. At the opening bell today, the Sensex resumed firm above the 15,000 mark with gains of 99 points at 15,094. After rallying past the 15,100 level in the early trades, the market moved in the range 15,100-15,150 on steady buying movement. The market, however, gained momentum in the late trades on renewed buying in select frontline stocks and propelled the index to an intra-day high of 15,351. The Sensex finally ended the session with gains of 295 points at 15,289, while the Nifty rose 36 points to close at 4,610.

The market breadth ended in negative. Of the 2,717 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 2,147 stocks declined, 536 stocks advanced and 34 stocks ended unchanged. Barring the BSE Metal, Reality, Consumer Durables and the BSE power index, other sectoral indices ended at higher levels. The BSE Bankex index rose 3.32%, the BSE FMCG index added 1.76%, the BSE IT index was up 1.55% and the BSE Teck index was up 1.19%.

Among the strong gainers in index heavyweights, HDFC soared 7.73% at Rs2,384, Wipro scaled up 5.88% at Rs398.75, HDFC Bank advanced 5.31% at Rs1,337.45, ICICI Bank added 4.98% at Rs804.55, Hidustan Uniliver jumped by 4.31% at Rs235, and ACC moved up 3.76% at Rs805.15. L&T at Rs2937, Bharti Airtel at Rs800.50, SBI at Rs1,645.65, RIL at Rs2,200.80, ITC at Rs190.90 and Tata motors at Rs662.35 gained over 1% each. Tisco, however, dropped 7.04% at Rs592.45. While Reliance Energy declined 4.61% at Rs1,150.90, DLF was down a 4% at Rs598.10. Jaiprakash Associates, Maruti, Ranbaxy, Hindalco and NTPC ended with marginal losses.

Bankex stocks appreciated on sharp buying support. PNB spurted 5.58% at Rs485.45, HDFC Bank flared up 5.31% at Rs1,337.45, Centurion Bank of Punjab climbed 4.46% at Rs42.15 and Yes bank gained 4.08% at Rs142.75. Among other gainers Bank of India Union Bank, SBI, Kotak Bank, IOB, Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank were up over 1% each.

Artheon Finance at Rs9.26, Shree Global Tradefin at Rs43, Good Luck Steel Tubes at Rs258.80, KLG Capital Services at Rs70.90 and JPT Services at Rs30.10 touched new intra-highs on the BSE.

RNRL was the most actively traded counter on the BSE with trades of over 1.96 crore shares followed by Ispat Industries (1.06 crore shares), Essar Oil (0.86crore shares), RPL (0.86 crore shares) and IFCI (0.75 crore shares)