Sensex soars 434 points; Jaiprakash Asso, Hero Honda surge

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in the red at 19,187.01 points, rose steadily in the afternoon session and ended the day at 19,696.86 points, up 2.25 percent or 434.32 points from its previous close at 19,262.54 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 19,737.33 points and low of 19,101.63 points in the intra-day trade.  At the National Stock Exchange, the 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty closed 2.17 percent or 125.80 points higher at 5,911.50 after trading in the red in the morning session.

Broader markets as well as all the 13 sectoral indices also closed in the positive.  The BSE midcap index rose 1.40 percent at 7,223.02 points and the BSE smallcap index ended the day 1.30 percent higher at 8,823.46 points.

Among the sectoral indices, the capital goods and the auto indices soared nearly three percent.  The FMCG index rose 2.52 percent and the Bankex advanced 2.42 percent. The BSE IT and technology indices gained over two percent.

Jaiprakash Associates surged over seven percent at Rs.98.20. Hero Honda, up 5.86 percent at Rs.1,735.10; HDFC, up 3.92 percent at Rs.717.15; HDFC Bank, up 3.30 percent at Rs.2,372.05; L&T, up 3.26 percent at Rs.1,717.60; Maruti Suzuki, up 3.22 percent at Rs.1,277.65 were among the major gainers on the Sensex.

Only two of the 30 Sensex scrips closed in the red. Tata Power, down 0.51 percent at Rs.1,310.60 and Sterlite Industries, down 0.40 percent at Rs.172.90 were Sensex losers.