Sensex at all-time closing high of 7605

The Sensex opened seven points higher over its yesterday's close at 7,560. Early selling pressure in select counters saw the index erase gains and drop to a low of 7,505.

The market soon rebounded into the green and exhibited a positive trend through the trading session thereafter. While steady buying continued in most of the counters, impressive Q1 numbers by Reliance fuelled the rally and the index touched the 7,600-mark by mid-noon trades.

Hectic buying activity in banking and tech stocks towards the closing hours saw the Sensex scale to new intra-day peak of 7,620 - up 115 points over the day's low.

The Sensex finally wrapped up the session above the 7,600-mark at a new all-time closing high of 7,605 - up 52 points.

While 17 Sensex stocks advanced, 12 declined and one remained unchanged today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 73 lakh amounting to Rs 452.82 crore and declining shares registered a volume of 46 lakh for Rs 190.98 crore.

The breadth of the market, however, ended lower. Of 2,522 scrips traded on the BSE, 1,109 advanced, 1,357 declined and 56 remained unchanged today.

SBI flared up 3.57% (Rs 27) to Rs 776. While HDFC Bank shot up 4.10% (Rs 28) to Rs 703, ICICI Bank jumped 2.90% (Rs 15) to Rs 523. Over 35.71

lakh ICICI Bank shares changed hands on the BSE.

Wipro advanced 2.93% (Rs 21) to Rs 728. While Satyam moved up 2.49% (Rs 13) to Rs 535, TCS added 1.57% (Rs 20) to Rs 1,285. Infosys ended with steady gains at Rs 2,231 - up Rs 4.

Reliance, which zoomed past the Rs 700-mark in intra-day trades on strong Q1 numbers, finally ended with a per cent gain (Rs 7) at Rs 698. The counter clocked a volume of over 32.57 lakh on the BSE.

ITC and ONGC, however, ended marginally weak at Rs 1,690 and Rs 966, respectively.

Maruti moved up 2.81% (Rs 13) to Rs 482, and Tata Motors was up a per cent (Rs 3) at Rs 479.

Tisco, which reported a 27% jump in its Q1 earnings report, however, dropped 3.64% (Rs 14) to Rs 375. The counter registered a volume of over 39.39 lakh.

Capital goods stocks notched up decent gains today. Havell soared 9.88% (Rs 53) to Rs 594. While Alstom moved up 5.24% (Rs 13) to Rs 268, Crompton Greaves added 3.77% (Rs 21) to Rs 568. Esab, Usha Martin and Thermax were up in a range of 1-3%.

Reliance was the most active traded counter on the BSE with a turnover of Rs 227 crore, followed by Tisco (Rs 151 crore), SBI (Rs 81 crore) and Satyam (Rs 35 crore), respectively.