Sensex ends up 107pts; metal stocks lead

After closing above the 16,000 mark yesterday, the Sensex today opened flat at 16,031. Strong cues from the global markets and aggressive buying in the metal stocks helped the index to zoom to a high of 16,232.

The Sensex slipped sharply from day's high in the late afternoon trades led by selling in the FMCG, auto and realty stocks.

The Sensex finally ended at 16,123, up 107 points. The NSE Nifty ended at 4,805, up 22 points.

The market breadth was marginally negative. Out of 2,889 shares traded, 1,362 advanced, 1,461 declined and 66 were unchanged today.

Among the sectoral indices, metal index led the move, up 2.5% at 13,315. It was followed by oil & gas, up 2%. The other marginal gainers were capital goods and bankex indices. FMCG, auto and realty indices on the other hand slipped 1% each.

INDEX MOVERS...

Hindalco surged 6% to 115. Sterlite and SBI advanced over 4.5% each to Rs 740 and Rs 1,894, respectively.

Reliance, Reliance Infrastructure and Tata Steel gained around 3.5% each to Rs 2,075, Rs 1,204 and Rs 456, respectively.

Hero Honda, Larsen & Toubro and Jaiprakash Associates are up 1-2% each.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Tata Power slipped 3% to Rs 1,280. Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Communications and Maruti were down around 2.5% each.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the combined value chart with a turnover of Rs 1,516 crore. It was followed by Unitech (Rs 1,074 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 872 crore), DLF (Rs 819 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 806 crore).

Unitech toped the volume chart with trades of 94 million shares. It was followed by NHPC ( 78 million), Suzlon (62 million), IFCI (60 million), Reliance Natural Resources (22 million).