Sensex ends up 349pts

AFTERNOON SESSION

The Sensex has ended (provisional) at 16,508 - up 349 points.

The Nifty has ended (provisional) at 4,902 - up 106 points.
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(Updated at 1432 hrs)

The Sensex has surged further to a high of 16,446 - up 300 points from the day's low. The index is now up 259 points at 16,416.

The Nifty is up 74 points at 4,870.
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(Updated at 1355 hrs)

The Sensex today opened at 16,191 - up 33 points. However, the index slipped into the negative zone in noon trades and touched a low of 16,147. Positive cues from the Asian markets saw the Sensex rebound sharply to the high of the day - 16,432. The index is now up 231 points at 16,389.

The NSE Nifty is up 70 points at 4,865. Around 978 stocks have advanced in NSE whereas 272 have declined.

The BSE bankex, oil & gas and metal index have gained in mid-noon trades. The bankex has jumped over 3% while the oil & gas and metal indices are up around 2% each.

Sensex heavy-weight, Reliance has surged 3% to Rs 2,014. The company has contributed 62 points in the Sensex's 245 point rally. ITC, Tata Power and SBI have added 2.5% each.

ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have advanced 2.4% each to Rs 870 and Rs 1,680, respectively.

Reliance Infrastructure, Grasim, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Hindalco and HDFC are up around 2% each.

Larsen & Toubro have advanced 1.5% to Rs 1,600 on winning Rs 1,635 crore order.

However, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications have shown weakness in trades today. Bharti has dropped 3.5% to Rs 309 while Reliance Communications has slipped 2% to Rs 174.

Reliance has topped the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs 107.30 crore, followed by HDIL (Rs 97.13 crore), SBI (Rs 84.62 crore), Mahindra Satyam (rs 81.50 crore) and Suzlon (Rs 80.68 crore).

The volume chart is being led by Suzlon with trades of over 12.34 million shares, IFCI (8.42 million), Unitech (7.84 million), Mahindra Satyam (7.52 million) and Ispat Industries (5.25 million).