Sensex ends up 214.65 pts, ahead of trust vote

Mumbai, Jul 21: The Sensex on Monday, July 21 surged by 214.64 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange to close at 13,850.04 in a choppy trading session, ahead of the Trust vote in Lok Sabha tomorrow.

After resuming the day with a considerable positive gap at 13,782.13, the benchmark index of BSE touched day's low at 13,581.19, lost 54.21 points from its previous close of 13,635.40. Later, it moved up to hit a day's high of 13,878.88, gaining 243.48 points in the mid-afternoon trade and finally ended with a positive gap of 1.57 per cent. Similarly, broader-based Nifty index of National Stock Exchange touched a low of 4,072.75 and day's high of 4,168.15 before closing 67.25 points up at 4,159.50.

Amidst volatility bouts, the BSE Mid-Cap index ended marginally up by 0.34 pc at 5,256.99, while the Small-Cap ended marginally down by 0.28pc at 6,437.98.

Barring three, all the sectoral indices closed with a positive gap, Bankex gained 3.88 pc, Realty surged 2.44pc, FMCG surged 1.68 pc and Auto was up 1.43pc, while IT, consumer durables and capital goods ended the day marginally down in red.

The market breadth was negative with 1164 shares advancing against 1367 that declined, and 85 remained unchanged.

Index top gainers were Cipla, up 5.20 pc at Rs 226.45, HDFC Bank up 4.78pc at Rs 1082.95, Ranbaxy laboratories up 4.74pc at Rs 458.20, NTPC up 4.70pc at Rs 181.45 and Maruti Suzuki up 3.92pc at Rs 648.20.

Satyam Computer was down 4.14pc at Rs 367.10, Bharat Heavy Electricals by 1.56pc at Rs 1506.45, Larsen&Toubro by 1.26pc at Rs 2513.05 and Bharti Airtel by by 0.44pc at Rs 798.45.

Index frontliners, Reliance Communication rose 2.62 pc to Rs 446.60, after it called off the negotiation talks with South African telephony operator giant MTN Group, citing legal issues.

Reliance Industries rose 1.92pc to Rs 2,153.30 and Infosys Techologies rose 0.88pc to Rs 1,561.80.

Bank of Baroda gained 6.95pc at Rs 230.95, Union Bank of India surged up 6.61 pc at Rs 122.30, Punjab National Bank climbed 4.57pc at Rs 460.60, ICICI Bank rose 4.29pc to Rs 644.10, State Bank of India gained 3.67pc at Rs 1,347.45 and Axis Bank moved up 1.57pc at Rs 697.60, as banking stocks were in good demand today.

Mortgage lender LIC Housing Finance soared 8.61pc to Rs 257.35 after it reported 124 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 104.66 crore for the qurter ended June 30. Its total income grew by 34.68 per cent to Rs 622.01 crore for the same period.

UNI