Markets gain ahead of Reliance results

The markets witnessed some volatility in the first half of the day, as traders awaited the Reliance numbers. However, renewed buying interest in the latter half of the day backed strong quarterly earnings so far saw the markets stage a smart rally.

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 41 points at 15,272. The index slipped into red, to a low of 15,169. However, it recovered smartly from there and touched a high of 15,419 - up 251 points from the day's low.

The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 148 points (1%) at 15,379. In the process, the index ended the week with a gain of 634 points.

The BSE Small and Mid-cap indices fared better and gained 1.7% and 1.8%, respectively.

The BSE auto index surged over 5% to 5,545, following better-than-expected Q1 numbers from Maruti Suzuki. Realty and metal indices gained 4% and 2.5%, respectively.

The market breadth was neutral with 48% stocks on both the advancing and declining sides.

INDEX MOVERS...

Vehicle companies led the list of gainers today with Tata Motors soaring 10% to Rs 374. Maruti Suzuki surged 6.5% to Rs 1,378 - a new all-time high. Hero Honda (also at new high) and Mahindra & Mahindra moved up around 4% each to Rs 1,736 and Rs 831, respectively.

DLF rallied 6.5% to Rs 394. Tata Steel added 6% to Rs 440. Jaiprakash Associates advanced 5% to Rs 242.

Hindalco, Sterlite, ONGC, Tata Power, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever, BHEL, NTPC, Grasim and TCS also moved up.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Sun Pharma slipped 2% to Rs 1,246. HDFC, SBI and Reliance (ahead of its Q1 numbers) dropped around 1.5% each.

Meanwhile, the Nifty ended up 46 points at 4,569.

Among the Nifty-50, Idea Cellular gained 4.5% at Rs 82. HCL Technologies moved up 4% to Rs 235, and ABB added 3.5% to Rs 742.

However, Punjab National Bank shed 3% at Rs 716. Ambuja Cements dropped 2% to Rs 95.

SAIL, Tata Communications and Siemens also declined.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Mahindra Satyam topped the combined value chart with a turnover of Rs 1,291.93 crore, followed by Suzlon (Rs 1,286.36 crore), Reliance (Rs 1,122.99 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 996.69 crore) and DLF (Rs 960.92 crore).

The combined volume chart was topped by Suzlon with trades of 127.25 million shares, followed by Mahindra Satyam (121.11 million), Unitech (84.57 million), Ispat Industries (72.27 million) and FSL (58.38 million).