Sensex flares up on solid gains in IT, banking

Mirroring positive cues from the Asian markets, the Sensex opened 90 points higher at 11,092. Fresh buying thereafter saw the index rally to higher levels as the day progressed.

IT, banking and energy stocks were the major gainers on Wednesday. The index touched a high of 11,430 towards the end. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 402 points at 11,403.

The NSE Nifty ended at 3,474, up 112 points.

In the process, the index has ended the first month of this new fiscal year - FY10 - with a solid gain of 17.5% (1,694 points). It may be recalled, that the index had ended FY09 on a dismal note - down 38% (5,936 points).

The BSE IT index today surged 6% to 2,663. The Bankex gained 4.5% at 5,685, and the Oil & Gas index added 3.5% to 8,133.

The market breadth was positive -- out of 2,546 stocks traded, 1,432 advanced, 1,028 declined and the rest were unchanged.

Meanwhile the Asian peers - the Hang Seng, Shanghai, Straits Times and Seoul Composite rallied 2-3% each.

BIG MOVERS...

ICICI Bank zoomed nearly 9% to Rs 478.

Jaipakash Associates, Sterlite and Tata Power soared nearly 7% each to Rs 139, Rs 409 and Rs 894, respectively.

Infosys, Reliance Infrastructure and Wipro rallied around 5% each to Rs 1,507, Rs 695 and Rs 331, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever, TCS, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, ONGC and Reliance were up around 4% each.

OTHER PROMINENT GAINERS...

IDFC zoomed nearly 13% to Rs 76.50, and LIC Housing Finance soared 11% to Rs 364. Welspun Guj, Areva T&D, Hindustan Construction, BEML, Alstom Projects, Balrampur Chini, Financial Technologies and Canara Bank gained 7-10% each.

...AND THE LOSERS

Bank of India plunged over 6% to Rs 235, and Godrej Consumers tumbled 5.5% to Rs 137. Indiabulls, United Phosphorous, Hindustan Copper, Reliance Power, Biocon, Central Bank and EIH dropped 2-4% each.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Unitech topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 321.40 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 185.70 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 184.24 crore), Reliance Industrial Infrastructure (Rs 165.26 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 154.45 crore).

Unitech led the volume chart with trades of around 74.40 million shares followed by Jaiprakash Associates (11.05 million), Suzlon Energy (11.05 million), Reliance Natural Resources (9.79 million) and Indiabulls Realestate (7.94 million).