ONGC and Bank stocks take Sensex past 7500

25 July 2005

After the over 100 point surge on the Sensex on Friday, not many would have bargained for an encore today as well. Proving all pessimists wrong, the Sensex was trading with gains of over 100 points in intra-day trades crossing the 7,500-mark conformably on the way.

Markets opened with a positive gap as ONGC started the day strongly after the high profile weekend deal with the Mittal group. The stock closed with gains of close to 3 per cent. The indices maintained a steady upward momentum throughout the day as more frontline stock joined the party.

The sector, which attracted the most attention today was banking, as all round buying was seen in frontline banking stocks ahead of an expected hike in short-term interest rates by the RBI.

ICICI Bank was the star of the day, closing over 8 per cent higher at a new life-time high. HDFC Bank closed the day with gains of 4 per cent while SBI closed 3 per cent higher. Punjab National Bank closed 4 per cent higher.

Zee Telefilms surged close to 10 per cent in early afternoon trades, before giving up part of its gains and closing over 8 per cent higher.

Sensex closed at 7506, a gain of 82 points and the Nifty at 2292, a gain of 26 points. Nifty July futures closed the day at a discount of 6 points to the spot index as against a premium of 2 points on Friday.