The Sensex exhibited lacklustre movement, with the index moving in a narrow range of 104-odd points, on Monday. After opening with a positive gap of 83 points at 15,402, the index pared gains and dropped to a low of 15,323 only to bounce back to a high of 15,427.
The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 103 points (0.7%) at 15,422. The NSE Nifty ended at 4,475, up 11 points.
The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices surged over 1.7% each to 6720 and 8194, respectively.
The market breadth was fairly positive -- out of 2,774 stocks traded, 1,971 advanced, 746 declined and 57 were unchanged on Monday.
Index Movers...
NTPC zoomed 7% to Rs 185. Dr.Reddy's soared 4% to Rs 666.
Cipla and BHEL surged 2.7% each to Rs 172 and Rs 1,941, respectively. ICICI Bank rallied 2.5% to Rs 907.
ITC gained 2% at Rs 174. Mahindra & Mahindra advanced 1.7% to Rs 721.
Hindalco and Maruti moved up around 1.5% each to Rs 160 and Rs 881, respectively.
Ranbaxy and HDFC were up over 1% each at Rs 396 and Rs 2,000, respectively.
...And The Shakers
ONGC dropped nearly 2% to Rs 842. Wipro slipped over 1% to Rs 475.
Bajaj Auto and Bharti Airtel were down 1% each at Rs 2,322 and Rs 871, respectively.
Most Active Counters
IFCI topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 191 crore followed by Reliance Petro (Rs 127 crore), Reliance (Rs 127 crore), Everonn Systems (Rs 118.70 crore) and IDBI (Rs 94.50 crore).
IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 2.80 crore shares followed by Bellary Steel (2.16 crore), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (1.76 crore), Ispat Industries (1.50 crore) and Tata Tele (1.38 crore).