The Samvat year 2062 commenced on a strong footing with the Bombay Stock Exchange rising by a whopping 131 points to cross 8000 points at 8024 points in first few minutes of special 'muhurat' trading session this evening on the back of brisk buying by foreign funds and retail investors.
The major contributors to the Sensex were most-weighted Reliance Industries, Infosys Technologies, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, ITC Ltd, State Bank of India, Larsen and Toubro, Tata Consultancy, Hero Honda and Reliance capital.
Stock brokers said with the improvement in the trading sentiments buying interest was also seen in several mid-cap stocks.
However, the index could not hold gains, and dropped to a low of 7,915 - an intra-session swing of 109 points. The Sensex finally closed with a gain of 52 points at 7,944 on the first day of the Samvat year 2062.
The Nifty gained 16 points to close at 2,387.
HDFC Bank zoomed 3.3% (Rs 20) to Rs 626. Tata Motors advanced 2.5% (Rs 12) to Rs 485.
Dr. Reddy's added 2% (Rs 17) to Rs 824. Hindalco advanced 2.6% (Rs 3) to Rs 117. ACC was up 1.5% (Rs 7) at Rs 452. L&T was up Rs 16 at Rs 1,415. Bajaj, Grasim, Maruti and Tata Steel also finished with gains.
Infosys gained Rs 11 to Rs 2,535. While TCS added Rs 9 to Rs 1,409, Satyam was up Rs 6 at Rs 612.
Reliance was up Rs 4 at Rs 766 While SBI was flat at Rs 838, ONGC declined Rs 2 to Rs 927.
BHEL slipped 1.5% (Rs 17) to Rs 1,118. Hero Honda dropped Rs 6 to Rs 701. ICICI Bank was down a rupee at Rs 497. Ranbaxy was also down a rupee at Rs 350.