The markets continued their upward march on Wednesday with the benchmark index hitting the 17,000 mark in opening moves.
This is the shortest time that the Sensex has taken to cover 1,000 points. It has taken just five trading sessions for the Sensex to hit 17k from 16k levels.
Leading the charge at the Sensex on Wednesday are Wipro, Satyam Computer, TCS, Infosys Technologies, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Auto. They moved up over a per cent each.
Ranbaxy, Reliance Communication, Tata Steel, Reliance Energy, Hindustan Unilever, Cipla, ACC, Dr Reddys, BHEL and Bharti Airtel are some of the other notable gainers.
Shrugging off early volatility, the market moved up smartly into the positive zone this morning but wilted under a strong bout of selling around noon and plunged sharply into the red.
For more than a couple of hours, the Sensex languished in the red as lack of triggers and profit taking rendered the market weak. Select old economy stocks and IT majors Infosys Technologies and Satyam Computer Services displayed strength and posted sharp gains. Bank, auto, capital goods and realty stocks bore the brunt of pressure and drifted down sharply.
Just when it appeared that the market would snap its winning streak and settle down in the red, a fresh round of buying in a few frontline stocks pulled the indices out of the red and lifted them up to a positive close today.
While the Sensex, which hit a new high at 16,928.02, settled at 16,899.54, well off its intra-day low of 16,676.98, with a gain of 53.71 points or 0.32%, the Nifty, which swung in a range of around 76 points - it touched a low of 4878.15 and a new high of 4953.90 today - ended at 4938.85, netting a gain of 0.13% or 6.65 points.
• Change in market timings due to sun outage
HDFC Bank, which rallied smartly in late afternoon trade, ended with a handsome gain of 3.85% at Rs 1397.70. Hindalco (2.9%), Bharti Airtel (2.15%), Reliance Industries (1.85%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (1.75%), Hindustan Unilever (1.6%), Cipla (1.2%) and Maruti Udyog (1.15%) closed with sharp gains.
ACC, Satyam Computer Services, HDFC, Infosys Technologies, Grasim Industries and ONGC also ended on a firm note.
PSU oil stocks BPCL and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation moved up sharply and ended stronger by 7.25% and 3.65% respectively. MTNL, IPCL, Sterlite Industries, ABB, SAIL, Zee Entertainment, HCL Technologies and GlaxoSmithKline Pharma closed with sharp to moderate gains.
Mahindra & Mahindra (down 2.6%), Bajaj Auto (down 2.15%), State Bank of India (down 1.6%), Wipro (down 1.55%) and Larsen & Toubro (down 1.1%) declined sharply. Ambuja Cements, Tata Steel, Reliance Communications, Tata Motors, NTPC, ICICI Bank, Reliance Energy and ITC lost 0.5% - 0.75%. BHEL, Tata Consultancy Services and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories also closed weak.
Reliance Petroleum went down by 4.65% on profit taking after recent impressive gains. GAIL India and Hero Honda lost more than 3% today. Punjab National Bank, Siemens and VSNL also closed with sharp losses.
JP Hydropower vaulted nearly 27% to Rs 865.15 on strong volumes. On the National Stock Exchange, the JP Hydro counter recorded a hefty volume of 79.82 million shares today. GMR Infrastructure (up 3.9%), IFCI (up 3.7%) and Reliance Natural Resources (up 1.85%) also surged on strong volumes.
Though the benchmark indices closed on a positive note, the market breadth remained weak today as several stocks from midcap and smallcap segments drifted down to lower levels on profit taking.
Out of a total of 2816 stocks traded on BSE today, 1653 stocks slipped into the red. 1111 stocks closed on a positive note and 52 stocks settled at their previous closing levels.
