Sensex marks record single-day gain, ends 1,139.92 pts up

Mumbai, Jan 25: Fluctuating between highs and lows during the last four sessions, the benchmark Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today registered the biggest single-day gain of 1,139.92 points or 6.62 per cent to close at 18,361.66, spurred by strong global cues even as the Nifty index of National stock exchange (NSE) zoomed up by a record single day rise of 349.90 points.

The sensitive index, which had marked a record single-day point fall this week, smartly recovered today to hit a day's high at 18,406.25, gained 1184.51 points from its previous close of 17,221.74 in late trade on strong buying interest and strong cues in Asian markets, where most of the indices were at record gains, brokers said. Meanwhile, the broader based Nifty index at the NSE was up by 349.90 points or 6.95 per cent, also a record single-day gain, to close at 5,383.35 from its previous close of 5,033.45.

Nifty touched a intraday high at 5,399.25, gaining 365.80 points before the day session ended.

Stocks across the globe were buoyed by several factors including strong corporate sentiment in Germany and reports of optimistic expectations over US economy, after the announcement of solid employment data and a congressional fiscal package including USD 150 billion of tax rebates and business incentives by the Bush administration, brokers said.

Hindalco, Reliance Energy and ICICI Bank were among the top heavyweight gainers of the day. All the sectoral indices on BSE ended the day, gaining 3 to 10.5 per cent. Realty, metal and bank indices led the mega-gain rally of the day. The market breadth was strong as 1573 shares advanced as compared to 1153 that declined and 32 remained unchanged.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 5199 crore compared to Rs 6,379.33 crore on the previous day.

BSE Reality index ended 10.41 pc up, Metal gained 9.73 pc, bankex zoomed 7.53pc, while consumer goods, oil& gas and auto indices ended the session gaining 6 to 6.7 per cent. Frontline stocks including Hindalco zoomed 14 pc to Rs 173, Reliance Energy soared BY nearly 12 pc to Rs 2,030, ICICI Bank gained over 11 pc to Rs 1,259 and Larsen&Toubro rallied by 10 pc to Rs 3,890.

NTPC and Bajaj Auto went up 9 pc each to Rs 222 and Rs 2,300, respectively. while Mahindra&Mahindra, Tata Motors and ONGC advanced over 7.5pc each respectively.

Bharti Airtel, Infosys and Reliance Communications gained over 7pc each and Tata Steel, HDFC Bank and Hindustan Unilever gained 6.3pc each, closing the day on a firm note.

Banking stocks were in demand as sharp cut in US interest rates this week has reportely increased the possibility of a 25 basis points repo rate cut by Reserve Bank of India. Bankex today outperformed the Sensex. Apart from strong gain registered by ICICI bank, Axis Bank soared 9.20 pc, Andhra Bank moved up 8.94 pc, Bank of India spurted 8.44pc, Oriental Bank of Commerce jumped 8.38pc and Allahabad Bank gained 7.76pc. State Bank of India rose 2.52pc to Rs 2405. The bank yesterday reported a 69.82pc rise in net profit to Rs 1808.64 crore for the quarter ended December 31'2007.

Among reality indices, Unitech surged 17.79pc, Indiabulls Real Estate soared up 13.75pc, Parsvnath Developers spurted 8.95pc, Omaxe jumped 6.53pc and DLF rose 5.89pc in the day's trade.

UNI