Sensex ends at 16,244.19 up by 90.53 points

Mumbai, Apr 16: The Sensex was up by a modest 90.53 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange today to close at 16,244.19, after trading in a narrow range throughout the day. The benchmark Sensex today surged 260.14 points at the day's high of 16,413.80, in early trade, on sustained buying in select pivotals, but slid in late trade to close with a moderate gain amidst bouts of alternate buying and selling. However, the broader based S&P CNX Nifty index of National Stock Exchange closed at 4887.30, to gain 7.65 points. Index heavyweights Infosys, Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank led gains today. Small and midcap index extended gains from the previous session.

BSE Midcap index was up 1.43 pc at 6,699.10 and Smallcap index was up 1.79 pc at 8,351.14. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex. The market breadth was strong as 1864 stocks gained against 816 stocks that declined and 74 stocks were unchanged. BSE posted a turnover of Rs 6767 crore against Rs 5,861.39 a day before. Nifty April 2008 futures were at 4888.15, at a premium of 0.85 points as compared to spot closing of 4879.65. The NSE's futures&options (F&O) segment turnover was Rs 39646.97 crore, which was lower than Rs 46369.75 crore on April 15, 2008.

The BSE IT index outperformed the Sensex, gaining 3.73 pc. Aptech moved up 14.53 pc at Rs 263.95, NIIT surged 6.21 pc at Rs 102.55, Wipro was up 5.35 pc at Rs 447.35 and Satyam Computer ended up 0.44 pc at Rs 454.05 and TCS was nearly unchanged at Rs 974.45.

Frontline scrips, Infosys Technologies was up 5.90 pc at Rs 1599.95, CICI Bank gained 1.10 pc at Rs 815.75 and Reliance Industries rose 1.38 pc at Rs 264.80. Kotak Mahindra Bank was up 5 pc at Rs 710.85, Andhra Bank by 2.59pc at Rs 79.10, Axis Bank by 1.54pc at Rs 786.80 and Federal Bank by 1.39pc at Rs 236.30.

However, construction firm Maytas Infra fell 1.52 pc to Rs 644.10, off day's high of Rs 680. The company said it has bagged an order worth Rs 68 crore from AP Road Development Corporation, Andhra Pradesh for building a bridge. Agro chemicals maker Rallis India galloped 5.82 pc to Rs 432.50 after the company reported 115.40 pc surge in net profit to Rs 125.19 crore on 7.60 pc rise in net sales to Rs 692.15 crore for FY-08.

UNI