Mumbai, Jan 21: The Sensex showed an impressive rally of 67.25 points on Friday with reasonably strong buying support from domestic institutions such as Unit Trust of India, Life Insurance Corporation and mutual funds while foreign institutional investors played a supporting role. Speculative short-covering also boosted the index to a certain extent.The credit for this 67-point rally goes to three counters - Infosys, ITC, and Reliance. Infosys which opened marginally lower reported huge buying and gained nearly Rs 1000 from its previous close. It closed at Rs 13,500.
ITC was buoyed by delivery-based trading with more than 8 lakh shares being traded on BSE and 12 lakh on the NSE. On the BSE the scrip peaked at Rs 843 gaining more than five per cent. Dealers said that institutional interest in the three scrips were strong. Reliance remained firm throughout the day and moved steadily. The rally gathered momentum during the latter half of the day. From a low of Rs 311, it crossed its previous tops andtouched an all-time high of Rs 326.
Other Sensex based-counters like HLL, NIIT, L&T, SBI, Ranbaxy and Bhel however remained dull for a major part of the day. Volumes were generally thin on the last day of trading with most traders unwilling to take fresh positions.
The Sensex opened at 5352.63 points and touched a low of 5330.08 points. Before closing at 5423.05 points, it touched a peak of 5441.83 points, showing a net gain of 67.25 points. The number of advances for the day was at 1954, whereas the number of declines was at 1140. At the same time, around 227 stocks remained unchanged. The trading volume was at Rs 3588 crore. The software sector remained in the limelight on Friday. A large part of listed software stocks showed impressive gains. Satyam Computers touched an all-time of Rs 2790. Silverline, Rolta, SSI, Wipro, Himachal Futuristic, and DSQ software too, showed impressive gains.
The positive impact also helped small software stocks. Counters like Orient Info, Computech, ATN International,PCS, IEC Soft, Softrack, Synergy Log and Adam Comsoft showed impressive gains.
Besides software stocks, in the specified list, Sterlite, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, BPL, Sun Pharma, Infogulf Corporation, Tata Chemicals, and Dabur reported huge buying interest and posted impressive gains.
In the non-specified list, stocks like Kotak Mahindra Finance, Clio Finance, Hinduja Finance, Apollo Hospitals, Deccan Hospitals, National Ratio, Madras Aluminium and Federal Bank recorded impressive gains.
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