Stock Market Tips

The markets logged significant gains for the second straight day on the back of all-round buying. The BSE benchmark index, the Sensex, breezed past the highest level for this calendar year to touch a fresh high of 19,205. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 1.7 per cent (329 points) at 19,171 following its Tuesday's 305-point rally.

In the process of recording a fresh calendar year high, the BSE benchmark index has now gained a whopping 24 per cent (3,712 points) so far this year.

The NSE Nifty rallied 98 points to 5,855, and has zoomed 26.6 per cent so far this year.

The broader markets also ended with notable gains. The BSE Midcap index spurted 1.3 per cent to 6,827, and the Smallcap index was up 0.5 per cent at 7,216.

Among sectors, the BSE Realty index zoomed 3.4 per cent to 2,002. The Bankex rallied 2.8 per cent to 13,751, and the auto index jumped over 2 per cent to 10,849. The IT index, however, ended in red at 5,856, down 0.4 per cent.

The market breadth was fairly positive - out of 3,064 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,681 advanced and 1,264 declined today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

Bajaj Auto soared 5 per cent to Rs 1,953. ICICI Bank and Tata Motors rallied over 4.5 per cent each to Rs 1,082 and Rs 278, respectively.

Cipla surged 3.5 per cent to Rs 405. Sterlite Industries and HDFC rallied around 3 per cent each to Rs 105 and Rs 821, respectively.

HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro and Tata Power gained around 2.5 per cent each. A total of 21 out of the 30 stocks gained over a per cent each in today's trade.

On the other hand, Hero MotoCorp and Infosys slipped a per cent each to Rs 1,823 and Rs 2,445, respectively.

BHEL and Maruti Suzuki were the only other losers among the Sensex 30 stocks.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Apollo Hospitals topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 415.60 crore on the BSE. It was followed by United Spirits (Rs 221.25 crore), Karnataka Bank (Rs 65.27 crore), SBI (Rs 64.07 crore) and Jet Airways (58.65 crore).

Suzlon Energy led the volume chart with trades of around 16.71 million shares followed by Unitech (12.10 million), Alok Industries (11.25 million), SpiceJet (6.9 million) and Lanco Infratech (5.7 million).