Market ends firm, gains 109 points

The market was back on track after displaying subdued trend for last couple of sessions. The market remained firm for almost the entire trading session, above the 15,600 level. The Sensex began the day 43 points above its previous close at 15,548 and moved up to touch an intra-day high of 15,650 on substantial buying support in heavyweight, auto and banking stocks. The index also received major support from Maruti Udyog, SBI and ACC, which gained around 2-3% today. The Sensex finally wrapped up the session with a gain of 109 points at 15,614, while the Nifty closed with a gain of 32 points at 4,529.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,748 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,574 stocks advanced, 1,110 stocks declined and 64 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Realty index moved up by 2.69% followed by the BSE Auto index (up 1.30%), the BSE Bankex index (up 1.28%) and the BSE PSU index (up 1%). However, the BSE FMCG index closed in negative territory.

Among the heavyweights, Maruti Udyog gained 3.72% at Rs891, SBI soared 3.18% at Rs1,676, ACC surged 2.45% at Rs1,129, HDFC Bank moved up by 2.42% at Rs1,210, Grasim scaled up 1.88% at Rs3,264, Ambuja Cement was up 1.80% at Rs144 and HDFC advanced by 1.61% at Rs2,209. Reliance Communication gained 1.56% at Rs551, Tata Motors advanced by 1.35% at Rs695 and TCS moved up by 1.34% at Rs1,030. However, HLL, Hindalco, Dr Reddy's Lab, Tata Steel, ITC, Reliance Energy, Bharti Airtel, Cipla and ICICI Bank closed with moderate losses.

Over 2.13 crore Vishal Exports shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI (1.59 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (1.06 crore shares), IKF Technologies (1.01 crore shares) and Ispat Industries (87.34 lakh shares).

Value wise, Reliance Capital registered a turnover of Rs177 crore on the BSE followed by IFCI (Rs124 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs124 crore), MIC Electronics (Rs115 crore) and Welspun Gujarat (Rs107 crore).