Bulls bounce back...Sensex ends up 256 points

After a dismal performance in the last two days, the Sensex on Friday ended on a bouyant note. The index has shed nearly 700 points in the last two trading sessions.

The Sensex on Friday opened 57 points higher at 14,322, and exhibited sideways movement till noon trades. The index slipped for a brief period to touch a low of 14,180.

However, fresh buying in the late trades saw the index spurt to a high of 14,546 up 367 points from the day's low.

The Sensex finally ended 256 points higher at 14,522. The NSE Nifty ended at 4,314, up 62 points.

The BSE Capital Goods index rallied 5% to 12,315. The Realty and the metal indices were up over 3% each at 3,307 and 11,063, respectively.

The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 2,704 stocks traded, 1,345 advanced, 1,293 declined on Friday.

INDEX MOVERS...

Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro surged nearly 6% each at Rs 411.75 and Rs 1,496 respectively.

Tata Motors and Reliance Infrastructure rallied over 5% each at Rs 345 and Rs 1,262.

Jaiprakash Associates moved up 4.7% to Rs 200. Ranbaxy and ITC gained around 3% each to Rs 280 and Rs 200, respectively.

Grasim, Sterlite and Infosys advanced nearly 3% each at Rs 2,242, Rs 607, Rs 1,771.

....AND THE SHAKERS

NTPC declined over 2% to Rs 198.

Tata Power and ACC slipped each to Rs 1,164 and Rs 750, respectively.

VALUE &VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 281 crore. It was followed by Suzlon (Rs 259.98 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 240.35 crore), Unitech (Rs 222.80 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 212.58 crore).

Cals Refineries led the volume chart with trades of 74 million shares. It was followed by Unitech (28.66 million), Suzlon (24.24 million), Reliance Natural Resources (20.64 million) and Ispat (19.45 million).