Bank, auto, telecom and cement stocks take sensex past 7300


To those who had thought the large decline in the markets last Thursday after the London blasts would lead to a deeper correction, the strength of the pull back over the last 2 days would have come as a surprise. Markets have more than recovered the losses and the Sensex managed to close above 7300 for the first time ever today.

The first day of the results season started as if the markets have absolutely no doubts about corporate performance. Though Infosys which kicks off the big ticket results tomorrow was subdued, most other large cap stocks opened strongly helping the indices to start on a strong note.

The Sensex gained over 100 points and crossed the 7300 mark before noon as broad based buying was seen in private banks, telecom stocks, auto stocks and cement majors.

The firm trend was threatened not even once during the day as profit booking was very limited and the indices managed to bounce back every time there was a marginal decline.

Sensex closed at 7307, a gain of 95 points, and the Nifty at 2219, a gain of 23 points. Nifty July futures discount to the spot index narrowed to 9 points from Friday's 12 points.

ICICI Bank, ACC and VSNL were among the major gainers among Nifty stocks while BPCL, Sun Pharma and Wipro were the major losers.