The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 55 points at 15,019. The market displayed a bullish trend for most of the trading day, and the index remained above the 15,000-mark throughout the day.
The index touched a high of 15,085 - up 121 points from the previous close. Some profit-taking at the fag end of the day saw the index pare gains and finally finish with a gain of 82 points at 15,046.
This is the first-time ever that the index has ended above the 15,000-mark.
The market breadth was fairly positive - out of 2,737 stocks traded, 1,611 advanced, 1,055 declined and 71 were unchanged today.
Driving the index
Reliance Energy soared 3% to Rs 616. Larsen & Toubro and ONGC surged around 2% each to Rs 2,416 and Rs 896, respectively.
Bharti Airtel moved up 1.7% to Rs 881. TCS gained 1.5% at Rs 1,177.
SBI and HDFC Bank advanced 1.3% each to Rs 1,571 and Rs 1,168, respectively.
BHEL, NTPC, Wipro and Infosys were up over 1% each at Rs 1,575, Rs 157, Rs 525 and Rs 1,993, respectively.
Hindustan Unilever plunged over 2% to Rs 195. ICICI Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra (the stock today replaced Hero Honda in the index) slipped 1% each to Rs 970 and Rs 779, respectively.
PSU banks on a roll
Union Bank of India zoomed 12% to Rs 145. Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Karnataka Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Punjab National Bank soared 3-7% each.
Value & volume toppers
Debutant Roman Tarmat topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 269 crore followed by Vishal Retail (Rs 245 crore), Divi's Labs (Rs 202.60 crore), Akruti Nirman (Rs 179.30 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 146.25 crore).
IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 1.73 crore shares followed by G V Films (83 lakh), Roman Tarmat (82 lakh), IKF Technologies (69.50 lakh) and Reliance Natural Resources (41.60 lakh).