Sensex surges 453 pts; Realty leads rally

The Sensex gained the most in almost five weeks to recoup some of the past week's losses, incurred after the Union Budget on July 6. The Sensex had shed more than 1,400 points in the Budget week, followed by another 100 points yesterday.

The Sensex today opened with a positive gap of 149 points at 13,549 on strong global cues. The index moved sideways till noon. It surged to a high of 13,903, up 503 points from the previous close at the fag end of the day. Expectations that crops will benefit following the weather bureau's monsoon forecast boosted sentiments.

The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 453 points (3.4%) at 13,854.

The BSE realty index gained the most from the rally. The index soared 9.4% to 2,995. Other major gainers among the indices were metal (5.5%), consumer durables (5%), power (4.6%), capital goods (4%) and bankex (3.7%).

The market breadth was extremely positive. Out of 2,639 stocks traded, 1,956 advanced while only 602 declined. The rest were unchanged.

INDEX MOVERS...

DLF soared 11.5% to Rs 300. Reliance Infrastructure surged 9% to Rs 1,054. Jaiprakash Associates and ICICI Bank rallied over 7.5% each to Rs 191 and Rs 680, respectively.

HDFC gained 7% at Rs 2,368. Tata Steel moved up 5.5% to Rs 358.

Reliance Communications and Grasim added 5% each to Rs 249 and Rs 2,575, respectivly. Tata Motors, ACC, BHEL, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindalco, Reliance, Sterlite and Larsen & Toubro were the other major gainers today.

...AND SHAKERS

HDFC Bank slipped 1% to Rs 1,360, after announcing its Q1 results.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS...

Aban Offshore led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 230.29 crore. It was followed by Educomp Solution (Rs 146.79 crore), Suzlon (Rs 145.54 crore), DLF (Rs 142.03 crore) and Reliance (Rs 141.95 crore).

The volume chart was topped by Suzlon with trades of over 16.83 million shares, followed by Unitech (15.84 million), Reliance Natural Resources (10.25 million), Ispat Industries (9.17 million) and IFCI (7.21 million).