Sensex gains 77 points at close

The Sensex exhibited steady movement today. The index opened with a huge positive gap of 57 points at 10,859. After moving between a low of 10,830 and a high of 10,889, the Sensex finally settled with a gain of 77 points at 10,879.

The BSE Oil & Gas Index soared nearly 2% to 4652. The Metal Index gained 1.6% at 7647, and the Auto Index moved up 1% to 5328.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,614 stocks traded, 1,454 declined, 1,079 advanced and 81 were unchanged today.

Reliance witnessed aggressive buying, and the stock surged 3.6% to Rs 769.

Tata Motors and Tata Power rallied 2.8% each to Rs 919 and Rs 579, respectively. Tata Steel spurted 2.6% to Rs 470.

Satyam advanced 2.4% to Rs 824. BHEL, Grasim and HDFC were up nearly 2% each at Rs 2,120, Rs 1,897 and Rs 1,343, respectively.

Ranbaxy slipped 1.6% to Rs 407. NTPC and Larsen & Toubro declined 1.4% each to Rs 136 and Rs 2,507, respectively.

ITC and Wipro were down over 1% each at Rs 174 and Rs 517, respectively.

While 213 stocks hit their upper limits, 193 touched

lower limits today.

Zee zoomed nearly 16% to Rs 229. Southern Petro, ETC Network, Balmer Lawrie, Sonata Software, Aegis Ligistics, NIIT, Aban Loyd, Sesa Goa and Kotak Bank finished with sharp gains.

KEC Infrastructre and Sakuma Exports slumped over 8% each to Rs 42.90 and Rs 42.80, respectively. Jindal Polyfilm, Venkys India, Inox, Gitanjali Gems, VisualSoft, Ind-Swift, Bajaj Hindustan, HCL Infosys and GSK Pharma ended with significant losses today.

Reliance Communication Ventures led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 298.41 crore followed by Indotech (Rs 280.69 crore), Pratibha (Rs 177.71 crore), Reliance (Rs 162.85 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 120.46 crore).

Reliance Capital Ventures topped the volume chart with trades of around 3.58 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.92 crore), Reliance Energy Ventures (1.53 crore), Indotech (1.30 crore) and Pratibha (1 crore).

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