Realty, metal stocks propel Sensex

The Sensex opened 74 points higher at 9,078. The index after moving ahead, pared gains and touched a low of 9,054 in noon trades.

Steady buying, thereafter, mainly in realty and metal stocks helped the index bounce back to higher levels. The Sensex touched a high of 9,271 - up 217 points from the day's low - in late trades. The index finally settled with a gain of 253 points at 9,257.

The BSE Realty index soared 6.3% to 1,644, and the Metal index surged 4.4% to 4,880. The Bankex and the Oil & Gas index were up nearly 4% each at 4,790 and 6,089, respectively.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,528 stocks traded, 1,406 advanced and 1,023 declined, today.

INDEX MOVERS...

Ranbaxy soared over 8% to Rs 215. ICICI Bank surged 7.8% to Rs 411.

DLF rallied nearly 7% to Rs 178. Larsen & Toubro and Tata Motors gained 5% each at Rs 671 and Rs 147, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra moved up 4.7% to Rs 285. Reliance and ONGC advanced around 4% each to Rs 1,276 and Rs 645, respectively.

HDFC Bank and HDFC added 3% each to Rs 916 and Rs 1,489, respectively.

Tata Steel, ITC and Infosys gained nearly 3% each to Rs 177, Rs 176 and Rs 1,285, respectively.

Reliance Infrastructure, Wipro and Hindustan Unilever were up around 2.5% each at Rs 553, Rs 232 and Rs 259, respectively.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Reliance Communications shed 3.4% at Rs 166, and Maruti slipped over 3% to Rs 521.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Satyam topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 434.85 crore followed by United Spirits (Rs 284.45 crore), Reliance (Rs 187.40 crore), SBI (Rs 146.90 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 137.65 crore).

Satyam also led the volume chart with trades of around 8.20 crore shares followed by Unitech (2.54 crore), Suzlon (1.16 crore), HDIL (92.45 lakh) and Reliance Natural Resources (81 lakh).