Sensex ends up 178pts

The Sensex finally ended (provisional) with a gain of 178 points at 19,121. The NSE Nifty added 49 points to 5736.
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(Updated at 1445 hrs)

The markets opened on a strong note today, as the Sensex scaled the 19k mark for the first time in two months. An uptrend was observed through the day so far, with the Sensex touching a peak of 19,196 a little after noon, encouraged by positive global cues.

During the late noon  session, the bourses were trading firmly in positive territory, with the Sensex off the day's high, up 232 points at 19,175, and the Nifty at 5,762 up 75 points. Today is the seventh consecutive day the markets lodged straight gains, with robust buying seen in the banking and realty spaces. Worldwide too, the markets were on an upswing owing to bargain buys, and sobering oil prices, after the Japanese disaster of March 11 rattled investor sentiment globally. 

Hero Honda was the top gainer on the Sensex,after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) met today to discuss the Hero Group's fund raising of Rs 4,500 crore for funding the buyout of its erstwhile partner Honda’s stake. The scrip was up 4% at Rs 1,563, followed by Reliance Communications at Rs 109 and DLF at Rs 255, both up 3% each. Bharti Airtel at Rs 359 and Tata Power at Rs 1,334 were also up 3% each, while HDFC, L&T, NTPC, TCS and ONGC were up 2% each.

Conversely, Tata Steel and BHEL were the only stocks in the red on the benchmark index. Tata Steel at Rs 612 and BHEL at Rs 2,095 were both down marginally.

The broader markets underperformed the benchmark significantly, as the Mid-cap index at 6,762 and the Small-cap index at 8,011 barely moved. On the sectoral front, the realty index was up 2% at 2,273, followed by the IT index at 6,419 up 1%. Capital Goods stocks also saw strong buying, and the index was up 1% at 13,361.

In the realty space, DB Realty rallied 17% to Rs 97 after the scrip dropped to its 52-week low of Rs 81, was the top gainer, followed by Sunteck Realty at Rs 298 and DLF at Rs 256 both up 4%. On the It index, MphasiS was the top gainer at Rs 424 up 5%, followed by Sensex stock TCS at Rs 1,145 up 2% and Infosys at Rs 3,178 up 1%.