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Sensex up 117 points, led by tech stocks

Marketmen said, technology shares surged on fresh buying while the Indian rupee bounced back after tumbling to a 5-month low against the dollar on Wednesday. Metal shares got the lead tracking firm global metal prices. Asian and European stocks rose yesterday as Wall Street steadied overnight, helped by strong quarterly earnings and the prospect of lower interest rates.

The 30-share BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex) opened with a positive gap of 207 points at 17,825 and moved up to a high of 17,912 in early deals. The Sensex could not hold gains on selling pressure in financial stocks, and slipped into negative zone. The index dropped to a low of 17,482 — down 430 points from the day's high - in noon deals. Fresh buying towards the end saw the Sensex rebound into positive zone and close with a gain of 117 points (0.66 per cent) at 17,735.

The BSE Mid-cap index gained 80 points (1 per cent) at 7,669, and the Small-cap index moved up 62 points (0.64 per cent) to 9,693. The NSE Nifty ended 37 points higher at 5,192.

The BSE market breadth was marginally positive — out of 2,783 stocks traded, 1,459 advanced, 1,251 declined and 73 were unchanged.

Total turnover was Rs54.11 billion from Rs54.59 billion on Wednesday. Turnover surged in last hour of trade. By noon, it was estimated at Rs39 billion. Turnover on NSEís futures & options segment amounted to Rs434.10 billion from Rs439.87 billion on Wednesday.

Satyam proved the star performer of the day. It zoomed impressive 8.5 per cent to Rs458 on a business of 2.6 million shares (Rs1.2 billion). Wipro soared 5 per cent to Rs432. Infosys and TCS surged 4 per cent each to Rs1,630 and Rs918, respectively. Gains were equally impressive among the mid-cap IT stocks. Polaris Software Labs (up 9.3 per cent to Rs101), Rolta India (up 8.2 per cent to Rs329), Hexaware Technologies (up 8.8 per cent to Rs78), MphasiS (up 4.8 per cent to Rs243), and NIIT Technologies (up 2.9 per cent to Rs133).

In the metals section, Hindalco moved up over 7 per cent to Rs189 while Tata Steel rallied over 4 per cent to Rs806. Ambuja Cements and Bajaj Auto advanced over 3 per cent each to Rs120 and Rs2,411, respectively. Hindustan Unilever gained 2.8 per cent at Rs220, and DLF added 2.5 per cent to Rs836.

Financial stocks were weak performeRsof the day. HDFC plunged nearly 4 per cent to Rs2,648. ICICI Bank dropped 2 per cent to Rs1,144, and SBI slipped over 1 per cent to Rs2,179.

Market leader Reliance Industries staged a sharp recovery from dayís low of Rs2459. It ended 0.84 per cent higher at Rs2503 on half million shares. Reliance Power gained nearly 4 per cent to Rs423 on volumes of 5.7 million shares.

Four public sector banks, led by State Bank of India, had agreed on Wednesday on a cut in prime lending rates by 0.25 to 0.50 per cent, a move that will make housing and auto loans cheaper.

Centurion Bank of Punjab surged 16 per cent to Rs58 on large volumes of nearly 16 million shares. The stock surged on reports it is in merger talks with HDFC Bank.

The IPO of Rural Electrification Corporation was subscribed 2.94 times on the third day of its issue yesterday. The price band for the IPO is Rs90 to Rs105. The issue is slated to close Friday.

Reliance Capital topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs3,07 billion followed by Reliance Natural Resources (Rs3.02 billion), Reliance Power (Rs2.41 billion), Essar Oil (Rs2 billion) and Reliance Energy (Rs1.58 billion).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 22.5 million shares followed by Centurion Bank of Punjab (15.8 million), Ispat Industries (11.1 million), Essar Oil (8.4 million) and Gujarat NRE Coke (8.3 million).