Budget hopes boost Sensex

The Sensex on Friday opened down 105 points at 14,553, on weak cues from US and Asian markets. The index slipped to a low of 14,500 but soon recovered.

Thereafter, the index was rangebound for most part of the trading day. The Sensex soared on hopes of more positives from the Union Budget and touched a high of 14,946, up 446 points from the day's low.

The Economic Survey and the Railway Budget have been mostly positive, hence market players are now optimistic over the forthcoming Budget.

The Sensex finally ended at 14,913 -- up 255 points. The NSE Nifty ended at 4,424, up 75 points.

The Bankex was the biggest gainer among the sectoral indices. It added 2% to 8,460.

The market breadth was marginally positive -- out of 2,686 stocks traded, 1,341 advaned while 1,263 declined.

INDEX GAINERS. . .

HDFC rallied 8% to Rs 2,586. Tata Steel surged 4.5% to Rs 438.

Mahindra & Mahindra gained 3.5% at Rs 738. Reliance Infrastructure, ICICI Bank, Jaiprakash Associates and SBI have added 3% each to Rs 1,292, Rs 754, Rs 214 and Rs 214, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro, NTPC, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, BHEL, Tata Power, Wipro, Hindustan Unilever and HDFC Bank moved up 1-2% each.

. . .AND SHAKERS

Hero Honda and Hindalco slipped 1% each to Rs 1,370 and Rs 84, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS. . .

Educomp Solutions topped the value chart with a total turnover of Rs 378.65 crore. It was followed by Tata Steel (Rs 284.27 crore), Reliance (Rs 219.36 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 193.70 crore) and Suzlon (Rs 158.33 crore).

The volume chart was led by Reliance Natural Resources with trades of over 22 million shares. It was followed by Suzlon (14.95 million), Ispat Industries (13.40 million), Jaiprakash Hydro Power (9.82 million) and IFCI (9.47 million).