Sensex surges 372 points at close

After the loss of 565 points on Monday, the Sensex today opened on a positive note, gaining 48 points. Propelled by gains in most of the counters, the index edged higher in mid-morning deals but displayed a range-bound trend thereafter till mid-noon trades.

The market, however, escalated further by late noon trades following media reports that Sonia Gandhi [ Images ] has refused to become the next prime minister of India.

With the possibility of Manmohan Singh [ Images ] becoming the next prime minister gaining strength, the market sentiments improved considerably.

The Sensex, after witnessing an intra-day movement of 324 points, finally ended with a gain of 372 points at 4,877. The Nifty finished above the 1,500-mark, adding 115 points to end at 1,504.

While 29 Sensex stocks advanced, one declined today.

Reliance garnered 7.45% gains (Rs 30) to Rs 434. ITC zoomed 10.82% (Rs 90) to Rs 918. HLL [ Get Quote ] notched up 8.40% gains (Rs 10) to close at Rs 130.

SBI [ Get Quote ] flared up 9.81% (Rs 44) to Rs 491. MTNL [ Get Quote ] scaled up 13.51% (Rs 14) to Rs 121. While BHEL moved up 9.89% (Rs 39) to Rs 438, HPCL [ Get Quote ] ended with a modest gain of Rs 4 at Rs 319. ONGC [ Get Quote ] was marginally up by 1.51% (Rs 9) at Rs 639.

Infosys [ Get Quote ] mopped up 7.95% gains (Rs 360) to Rs 4,887. Wipro [ Get Quote ] (up Rs 282 or 22.33% to Rs 1,544) and Satyam [ Get Quote ] (up Rs 15 or 5% to Rs 308) also ended with sharp gains.

Dr. Reddy's spurted 12.70% (Rs 100) to Rs 888. While Cipla jumped 10.35% (Rs 22) to Rs 239, Ranbaxy [ Get Quote ] was up 3.97% (Rs 38) at Rs 1,008.

Grasim [ Get Quote ] surged 5% (Rs 52) to Rs 1,070. While Gujarat Ambuja [ Get Quote ] added 3.41% (Rs 9) to Rs 285, ACC was up 3% (Rs 7) at Rs 253. L&T, however, ended 3.97% lower (Rs 18) at Rs 445.

Hero Honda [ Images ] advanced 8.84% (Rs 36) to Rs 443. While Tata Motors [ Get Quote ] flared up 6.62% (Rs 25) to Rs 402, Bajaj [ Images ] rose 3.88% (Rs 33) to Rs 877.

HDFC Bank [ Get Quote ] vaulted 24.47% (Rs 70) to Rs 356. HDFC shot up 17.44% (Rs 88) to Rs 592. While Tata Power [ Get Quote ] gained 10.15% (Rs 27) to Rs 288, Bharti added 8.50% (Rs 11) to Rs 147. Tisco [ Get Quote ] perked up 11.83% (Rs 31) to Rs 294. Zee was up 3% (Rs 4) at Rs 124.

Hindalco [ Get Quote ] at Rs 926 (up Rs 60 or 6.89%), Reliance Energy [ Get Quote ] at Rs 575 (up Rs 97 or 20.40%) and ICICI Bank [ Get Quote ] at Rs 261 (up Rs 22 or 9.30%), too, ended with significant gains.