Sensex pares gains on profit-taking, ends up 113pts

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 303 points to 15,264 on the back of positive cues from the global markets. Fresh buying, thereafter, saw the index rally to a high of 15,423 - up 462 points from the previous close.

The markets displayed strength for most part of the trading day. However, aggressive profit-taking in the last one-hour of trades saw the index pare gains and drop to a low of 15,036. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 113 points at 15,074.

The market breadth turned negative towards the close - out of 2,786 stocks traded, 1,446 declined, 1,265 advanced and the rest were unchanged today.

The NSE Nifty touched a high of 4,616 - up 113 points - in morning trades, but eventually finished with a marginal gain of 15 points at 4,518.

INDEX MOVERS...

Maruti zoomed over 6% to Rs 653. Tata Motors soared 4.3% to Rs 427.

Bharti Airtel and ACC surged 3.5% each to Rs 870 and Rs 638, respectively.

TCS and BHEL rallied over 3% each to Rs 858 and Rs 1,827, respectively.

HDFC Bank advanced 2.7% to Rs 1,217. Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro and Hindustan Unilever gained around 2.5% each at Rs 562, Rs 2,764 and Rs 246, respectively.

ICICI Bank and Satyam added 2% each to Rs 707 and Rs 407, respectively.

ONGC, Wipro and Infosys were up 1.3% each at Rs 1,016, Rs 453 and Rs 1,699, respectively.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Tata Steel plunged 4.5% to Rs 646. Tata Power and SBI tumbled around 3.5% each to Rs 1,061 and Rs 1,524, respectively.

Reliance Infrastructure slipped over 3% to Rs 1,011, while HDFC shed 2.8% at Rs 2,396.

DLF dropped 1.5% to Rs 545. NTPC was down 1% at Rs 180.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance Natural Resources topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 374 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 353 crore), Reliance (Rs 327 crore), Larsen & Toubro (Rs 289.50 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 206.35 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 3.60 crore shares followed by Ispat Industries (1.42 crore), Kashyap Technologies (1.28 crore), IFCI (1.10 crore) and IDFC (87.80 lakh).