Sensex ends up 158pts; Hind Unilever gains 4%

Following yesterday's weakness, the Sensex opened with a negative gap of 91 points at 14,153, and soon touched a low of 14,137. Fresh buying, mainly in metal stocks, at lower levels helped the index recoup losses and rebound into the positive zone.

The index gyrated between zones for the first half of the day. Thereafter, buying spread to sectors like - FMCG, banking and power which led the index rally to a high of 14,429 - up 292 points from the day's low.

The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 158 points at 14,401.

The BSE Metal index surged 1.6% to 12,364. The BSE Bankex, Consumer Durables, FMCG, Oil & Gas and Auto indices advanced over 1% each.

The market breadth was marginally negative - out of 2,725 stocks traded, 1,411 declined, 1,212 advanced and 102 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS...

Sterlite and Hindalco surged 4.3% each to Rs 627 and Rs 135, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever rallied 3.7% to Rs 245. HDFC soared over 3% to Rs 2,281.

BHEL and Tata Power gained 2.7% each at Rs 1,716 and Rs 1,051, respectively.

Reliance Infrastructure, HDFC Bank and Tata Motors advanced 2.5% each to Rs 979, Rs 1,195 and Rs 428, respectively.

Reliance Communications, Infosys and Ranbaxy moved up nearly 2% each to Rs 406, Rs 1,695 and Rs 523, respectively.

ACC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti and Reliance were the other major gainers.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Satyam plunged over 3% to Rs 386. NTPC and Grasim dropped nearly 2% each to Rs 171 and Rs 1,929, respectively.

Wipro and Larsen & Toubro were down almost 1% each at Rs 418 and Rs 2,605, respectively.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Reliance Capital topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 232.65 crore followed by Vishal Info (Rs 205.85 crore), Reliance (Rs 170.75 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 163.70 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 141.80 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 1.72 crore shares followed by Cals Refineries (96 lakh), Triveni Engineering (89.80 lakh), Ispat Industries (76.80 lakh) and Chambal Fertilisers (72.60 lakh).