Markets gain on global cues

Markets today gained substantially on global cues, with the Sensex touching 18K and ending at three-month highs.

The Sensex opened at 17,876 and  surged thereafter on the back of buying in realty stocks. The index crossed the psychological 18,000 mark to a high of 18,010. But the index started slipping in noon trades after a weaker than expected IIP number was announced. The Sensex managed to recover some of its losses and ended finally at 17,937 - up 104 points.

The Nifty touched a high of 5,402 - its highest in 29-months. The NSE index finally ended at 5,383 - up 31 points.

Most of the sectoral indices were in the green today with realty index jumping 2.2% at 3,337. Bankex and IT were also up. IT index added 1.2% to 5,546 ahead of the IT major, Infosys's, results on Tuesday.

However, the oil and healthcare indices were marginally in red.

Industrial output rose by 11.5 per cent in May, growing in double digits for the eighth straight month, on good showing by manufacturing, particularly capital and consumer goods.

Reliance Infrastructure shed 2% to Rs 1,150. Hero Honda tumbled 1.5% to Rs 1,978.

Reliance Communications and ONGC slipped 1.3% each to Rs 191 and Rs 1,276, respectively. ACC, Maruti Suzuki and Bharti Airtel were the other losers.

However, DLF gained 2.3% at Rs 303. Tata Motors added 2.3% to Rs 788.

IT majors jumped. Wipro and TCS added 2.2% each to Rs 409 and Rs 791, respectively. Infosys was up 1% at Rs 2,894.

ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were up 2% each. SBI advanced 1.3% to Rs 2,399.

Jaiprakash Associates, Sterlite, HDFC and Hindalco were the other big gainers.

BSE market breadth was positive. Out of 3,013 stocks traded, 1,567 advanced while 1,320 declined.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS...

DR Reddy's topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 85.47 cr, followed by SBI (Rs 81.13 cr), Reliance Capital (Rs 78.78 cr) and Tata Steel (Rs 75.49 cr).

The volume chart was led by FCS Software with trades of over 28 million shares, followed by Shree Ashtavinayak Cinevision (9.02 million), Idea Cellular (7.23 million) and Unitech (5.01 million).