Another 500-point rally for Sensex

The BSE index vaults 523 points or 4% to end at 13,635. This came on top of yesterday`s 536-point gain, marking one of its fastest advance in recent memory.

The bulls continued their turnaround story of this week on Friday, with the benchmark indices notching up strong rally for the second consecutive day. Overnight gains in the US stocks, coupled with sharply lower crude oil prices and stable inflation were the main drivers behind the rally. What's most interesting about today's advance was it came despite weakness across most Asian markets and soft opening in European markets. The US market futures too were down, pointing to lower opening after top companies like Google, Microsoft, AMD and Merrill Lynch came out with less than expected results.

Coming back to our market, the BSE Sensex rallied 523 points or 4% to end at 13,635. This came on top of yesterday's 536-point (4.3%) gain, marking one of its fastest two-day advance in recent memory. The benchmark index recovered from the weekly low of around 12,514, which was struck on July 16. The index rose by 1.15% during the week after last week's modest gains. The NSE Nifty today jumped 3.7% to close at 4092, after gaining 3.4% yesterday. The index was up 1.2% during the week and rebounded from the week's low of 3790. Gains in the Small-Cap and Mid-Cap shares were relatively muted today.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Bankex led from the front, surging by 8%. This was followed by Real Estate index (5.5%), Oil & Gas (4.3%), Capital Goods (3.6%), Power (3.4%), FMCG (2.8%) and Auto (1.8%). The BSE IT index was by far the worst performer, tumbling by 2.6%, while the Metal index was down 0.25%.

Within the Sensex, the prominent gainers were ICICI Bank (12%), HDFC (9.5%), HDFC Bank (7.9%), Jaiprakash Associates (7.7%), Bharti Airtel (7.1%), DLF (7%), REL INFRA (6%), SBI (5.9%), BHEL (5.35%), ITC (5.3%) and NTPC (5.2%). Reliance Industries, ONGC, L&T, RCOM and Maruti gained more than 4% each. Tata Motors, TCS, Hindalco and Cipla posted modest gains. Among the top losers were Satyam (7.5%), Wipro (3.75%), Ranbaxy (3.3%), Tata Steel (2.4%) and Infosys (2.2%).

Outside the main indices, the prominent gainers included IDFC (15.5%), Patel Engineering (10.7%), Indian Bank (10%), Essar Shipping (10%), GSS America (10%), Jet Airways (9.4%), Gujarat NRE Coke (9%), Yes Bank (8.9%), Axis Bank (8%), Ansal Infra (7.8%), Indiabulls Realty (7.6%), PNB (7.6%), Balaji Tele (7.5%) and Nagarjuna Construction (7%).

The big losers included Kirloskar Bros (9.5%), Sadbhav Engineering (7.9%), Infotech Enterprises (7.8%), Mphasis (7.3%), Tata Chemicals (6.2%), HCL Tech (5.85%), Dabur Pharma (5.4%), KPIT Cummins (4.4%), Jain Irrigation (4.4%), NIIT Tech (4.3%), Prajay Engineers (4.2%), Bajaj Hindusthan (3.8%), Entertainment Network (3.8%), Astra Micro (3.6%), Shiv-Vani Oil (3.5%), Ratnamani Metals (3.4%) and Piramal Lifescience (3.3%).

Source : India Info Line