Bulls go on rampage, lift Sensex by over 500 pts; Nifty gains 151 pts

The Sensex, which sailed past 18,000 in style, went on to add another 250 plus points to hit a high of 18,268.95 in late afternoon trade and eventually ended the day at 18,240.68 with a whopping gain of 513.19 points or 2.89%.

The broader 50-stock Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange vaulted to 5477.85 and finally settled at 5471.25, recording a thumping gain of 151.25 points or 2.84%.

Realty stocks rallied on short-covering and bargain hunting after recent sharp losses. Mirroring their surge, the BSE Realty index rose as much as 3.76% today. Sector heavyweights DLF and Unitech gained nearly 3%. Sobha Developers shot up by over 11.5%. Parsvnath Developers, HDIL, Peninsula Land, Indiabulls Real Estate, Anant Raj Industries, Orbit Corporation, Godrej Properties, Sunteck Realty and Ackruti City also posted handsome gains.

Metal stocks ended on a high note. Tata Steel, Hindalco and Jindal Steel gained 3% - 4%, while Sterlite Industries, the other metal stock in the Sensex, ended 2.6% up. Among other stocks in the Metal index, Sesa Goa (5.8%), JSW Steel (4.65%), Welcorp (3.6%), SAIL (3.5%), Bhushan Steel (3.1%) and Jindal Saw (2.6%) posted strong gains.

Information technology heavyweights Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Infosys gained 3% - 4% today. HCL Technologies ended nearly 5% up. Financial Technologies moved up by over 4%, while Mphasis and Patni Computer Systems gained about 3.2% over their previous closing levels. Oracle Financial Services and several other IT stocks too ended on a high note.

Capital goods stock Larsen & Toubro surged 4.25%, with a strong order book buoying up sentiment. BHEL closed stronger by about 2.15%. BGR Energy, Punj Lloyd, Suzlon Energy, ABB, Siemens, Areva, Bharat Earth Movers, Havells India, Praj Industries, Gammon India, R7L9EI0I and Alstom Projects all ended with sharp gains.

In the banking space, State Bank of India ended nearly 6% up. ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gained 3.4% and 2.15% respectively. IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, Union Bank of India, Kotak Bank, IDBI Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and Federal Bank also closed on a buoyant note.

Automobile stocks Hero Honda (6.2%), Bajaj Auto (3.25%), Mahindra & Mahindra (3.2%), Tata Motors (2.1%) and Maruti Suzuki (up nearly 2%) ended with strong gains.

Power stocks Siemens, Reliance Power, NTPC, Tata Power, FMCG players ITC and Hindustan Unilever and pharma majors Ranbaxy Laboratories, Cipla and Aurobindo Pharma closed with impressive gains.

PSU oil stocks had a good outing ahead of the meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers on fuel prices. The EGoM is expected to mull a hike in diesel and LPG prices. A fall in crude oil prices is also supporting these stocks. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation gained over 6%, BPCL ended 2.85% up and Indian Oil Corporation moved up by about 2.75%. GAIL and Oil India also ended with sharp gains.

Consumer durables stocks drifted lower on profit taking. BSE CD, the consumer durables barometer, was the lone sectoral index to end in negative territory today.

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Midcap and smallcap stocks had a good outing. Shares from airlines and sugar sections posted strong gains. While airlines stocks surged higher on a sharp surge in passenger traffic in May and the fall in oil prices, sugar stocks moved up following an empowered committee of cabinet ministers allowing exports of an additional 5 lakh tonnes of sugar.

The market breadth was strong. On BSE, 1984 stocks moved up. 852 stocks declined and 124 stocks ended flat.