Sensex cheers GDP growth, oil price deregulation

The Sensex today opened 24 points higher at 14,320. A better-than-expected GDP growth of the country was received well by the investors. The index further gained and touched a high of 14,727 following the announcement by newly-appointed Oil Minister Murli Deora, about deregulating oil prices.

The Sensex finally ended at 14,625, up 329 points (2.3%).

All the sectoral indices were up between 1% and 7%, except the Health Care index which slipped 1.5%.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,852 stocks traded, 2,147 advanced while 649 declined.

INDEX MOVERS...

ACC and DLF soared 8.5% each to Rs 783 and Rs 403, respectively. Jaiprakash Associates rallied 8% to Rs 208.

TCS and Tata Steel surged 6% each to Rs 406 and Rs 675, respectively. Mahindra & Mahindra gained 5.5% at Rs 675. Larsen & Toubro, ONGC, Hindalco, NTPC, Wipro, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications added 3% each.

BHEL, Reliance, Maruti Suzuki, SBI, Ranbaxy, Sterlite and Infosys were the other major gainers.

...AND SHAKERS

Sun Pharma plunged 8% to Rs 1,210. Grasim shed 3.5% to Rs 2,106. Tata Power slipped over 2% to Rs 1,070.

OTHER PROMINENT GAINERS...

Nagarjuna Constructions Company zoomed 10% at Rs 139. Exide Industries soared 9.5% to Rs 71. IVRCL Infrastructure rallied 9% to Rs 329 after announcing its FY09 results.

Indiabulls Real Estate, Ashok Leyland, Financial Technologies, HPCL, Bajaj Auto and India Cement gained 8-9% each.

...AND OTHER PROMINENT LOSERS

Tata Communications slumped 5% to Rs 472. Bharat Forge declined 4.5% to Rs 180.

Tata Chemicals, Essar Oil, Zee Entertainment, HCL Technologies, Spice Telecommunications and Glenmark Pharma were down 3-4% each.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of over Rs 361 crore, followed by DLF (Rs 289.82 crore), Unitech (Rs 259.23 crore), Indiabulls Real Estate (Rs 241.25 crore) and Suzlon (Rs 239.28 crore).

The volume chart was led by Unitech with trades of 32.18 million shares. It was followed by Suzlon (25.05 million), Reliance Natural Resources (21.17 million), Ispat Industries (19.77 million) and GVK Power & Infrastructure (11.34 million).