The bulls recorded second straight day of gains in first week of New Year. After piercing 14k mark at open the key indices lost ground as the heavy weights like ABB, M&M, Tisco, ONGC and ICICI Bank witnessed selling pressure, further disappointing set of dispatch numbers by heavy weight ACC aided the down fall. However, after hitting an intra-day low of 13897.42 the benchmark index recovered from lower levels in the later half of the session as buying momentum in the Technology, Auto and Pharma stocks lifted benchmark BSE Sensex to close over the 14k mark for the first time. The Pharma index rose 1.42% followed by Technology index, which added 1.30%. The Auto and Bank index followed suit. Finally, the BSE benchmark Sensex surged 72 points to close at 14014. NSE Nifty was up 16 points to close at 4024.
Tata steel slipped 1.5% to Rs471. The company registered its April-December sales at 3.53mn tons, up 11.7% from year ago. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs481 and a low of Rs470 and recorded volumes of over 14,00,000 shares on NSE.
L&T advanced 0.8% to Rs1471 after the company secured $94mn order from the Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority for the construction of six major electrical substations. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs1486 and a low of Rs1420 and recorded volumes of over 6,00,000 shares on NSE.
IOL Broadband surged 3.8% to Rs277 after the company announced that they have tied up with BSNL for IPTV. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs277 and a low of Rs265 and recorded volumes of over 7,00,000 shares on NSE.
The Technology stocks were in the limelight. Mid-Cap technology stocks led from front Polaris, Moser Baer and Mphasis BFL were among the major gainers. Index heavy weights Infosys rose 1.9% to Rs2314, Satyam Computer was up 1.5% to Rs516 and Wipro added 1% to Rs617.
Pharma stocks recorded healthy gains. Ranbaxy, Sun Pharma, Glaxo and Cipla were among the major gainers.
Cement stocks were a mixed bag. Index heavy weights ACC lost 1.7% to Rs1073 on back of disappointing set of numbers. The company sold 1.65mn tons cement in December against 1.6mn. However, Grasim was up 0.2% to Rs2838, Gujarat Ambuja gained 0.3% to Rs145 and Mangalam Cement rose 1.4% to Rs212.
Metal stocks pared their intra-day gains. Tisco lost 1.55 to Rs471, Sterlite industries dropped 1.4% to Rs546, Hindustan Zinc fell 2.7% to Rs810 and National Aluminum was down 0.2% to Rs214.