Sensex up 124pts, nears 11K

The Sensex opened a tad lower at 10,747. After touching a low of 10,730, the index rebounded into positive zone - led by fresh buying in power stocks like BHEL and NTPC.

Stead buying across sectors saw the index break out of a narrow range and rally to 10,891 - up 161 points from the day's low. The Sensex finally settled with a smart gain of 124 points at 10,876.

The BSE Metal index surged 2.4% to 7878, and the Auto index advanced nearly 2% to 4536.

The BSE Mid-cap and the Small-cap indices were up 1.3% each to 4338 and 5178, respectively.

The market breadth was fairly positive - out of 2,499 stocks traded, 1,532 advanced, 879 declined and 88 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

NTPC surged nearly 4% to Rs 120. BHEL gained 2.4% to Rs 2,153.

Tata Motors rallied 3.5% to Rs 758. Tata Steel and Bajaj Auto advanced over 3% each to Rs 511 and Rs 2,543, respectively.

Reliance Communications and Gujarat Ambuja were up over 2.5% each to Rs 266 and Rs 106, respectively.

ITC, Reliance Energy, Hindalco, Dr.Reddy's and SBI gained over 2% each at Rs 173, Rs 458, Rs 161, Rs 1,419 and Rs 827, respectively.

Ranbaxy, ACC and Wipro moved up over 1.5% each to Rs 377, Rs 868 and Rs 503, respectively.

ONGC and Reliance were up nearly 1% each at Rs 1,193 and Rs 990, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 170.56 crore followed by Tata Steel (Rs 84.34 crore), TV 18 (Rs 79.64 crore), BHEL (Rs 78.71 crore) and Reliance Communications (Rs 68.21 crore).

G V Films led the volume chart with trades of around 85.25 lakh shares followed by IDFC (66.60 lakh), Essar Oil (44.68 lakh), IL&FS Invest (37.75 lakh) and Ashok Leyland (27.83 lakh).