Markets end strong; oil & gas, IT, pharma stocks surge

The markets opened with decent gap up today but could not sustain the momentum and slipped in red in early trade on the back of some profit booking witnessed across the sectors led by banking, auto and metal. During second half of trade, the markets recovered amid volatility and ended with handsome gains. Good amount of short covering were also witnessed in the late trade today. Cues from the Asain and European markets were encouraging.

It was good day for the Oil & gas, IT and pharma stocks which traded firm through the day. Broader markets underperformed the frontline counters once again and on the volume front, it was a modest day.

Sensex ended up 301.50 points or 1.74% at 17650.57, and the Nifty closed up 89.95 points or 1.76% at 5200.70. About 1211 shares have advanced, 1737 shares declined, and 87 shares are unchanged. BSE midcap ended flat at 7594.41 and smallcap was down 0.72% at 9526.28.

BSE auto index ended up 0.29% at 4721.15. TVS Motor, Maruti Suzuki, hero Honda and Escorts were the top gainers in the auto sector.

BSE bankex was down 0.37% at 10113.14. Karnataka Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Andhra Bank were the top gainers.

BSE capital goods index ended up 0.92% at 15800.27. Carborundum, Triveni Engineering, Thermax were the top gainers in this space.

BSE FMCG index closed up 0.39% at 2239.84. Tata Tea, Colgate, Marico and Godrej Consumer were the top fliers today.

BSE pharma index was up 1.26% at 3792.07. IPCA Labs, Sun Pharma and Wyeth gained most in this counter.

BSE IT index was up 1.90% at 3992.54. In the IT sector, the leading gainers were Wipro, HCL Tech, Satyam and Infosys.

BSE metal index ended up 0.98% at 16530.16. Guj NRE Coke, Nalco and Shree Precoated were the top gainers.

BSE oil & gas index closed up 3.6% at 11057.38. Reliance GAIL, RNRL and Cairn India were the top gainers.

BSE power index ended up 1.09% at 3611.18. Reliance Energy, NTPC and Siemens were the top gainers.

BSE realty index closed up 1.12% at 9769.31. In the realty index, the top gainers were Unitech, Omaxe and Ansal Properties.

Asian markets were trading firm. Japan's Nikkei gained 2.07% or 279.89 points at 13,780.35. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.43% or 100.32 points at 23,405.36.Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted advanced 2.28% or 184.50 points at 8,293.21. Singapore's Straits Times shot up 0.60% or 18.17 points at 3,066.81. South Korea's Seoul Composite was up 1.13% or 19.04 points at 1,705.49.