Sensex ends up 523.55 pts, breaches 13,500 mark.

Market maintained its rally for the second consecutive day, supported by lower than expected inflation figures and weakening crude oil prices. The tremendous rally was led by banking, realty, power, oil, FMCG stocks.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap index rose 1.63% and 1.08% respectively.

ICICI Bank, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Jaiprakash Associates, Bharti Airtel, were the major contributors, which led the rally.

The Sensex ended the day with a gain of 523.55 points, or 3.99% at 13,635.40 after touching a high of 13684.27 and a low of 13093.34. The broad-based NSE Nifty gained 145.05 points, or 3.67% at 4092.25 after hitting a high of 4110.55 and a low of 3926.30.

Most Asian stocks dropped on Friday on concern of slow economic growth and oil companies dropped after the oil prices plunged further to USD 129.29 a barrel yesterday (Thursday).

Overall market breadth was positive. Out of the total 2,686 shares traded at BSE, 1,616 advanced, 980 declined while 90 remained unchanged.

All sectoral indices at BSE closed with a positive note, led by Bankex (8.05%), Realty (5.47%), Oil & Gas (4.29%), Consumer Goods (3.57%), Power (3.43%), FMCG (2.79%). However IT and Metal fell 2.57% and 0.25% respectively.

Major gainers in the 30-share index were ICICI Bank (12.05%), Housing Development Finance Corporation (9.47%), HDFC Bank (7.87%), Jaiprakash Associates (7.72%), Bharti Airtel (7.10%), and DLF (6.99%).

On the other hand Satyam Computer Services (7.51%), Wipro (3.75%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (3.26%), Tata Steel (2.43%), Infosys Technologies (2.2%), and Hindustan Unilever (0.05%) were the major losers in the Sensex.

The wholesale price index, inflation, which was released on Thursday was below market expectation. The inflation trudged vertically up to 11.91% for the week ended July 05, as compared with 11.89% in the previous week fuelled by high prices of all essential commodities

Oil prices bounced above USD 130 a barrel on Friday as buyers came back into the market after a more than 10% slide in three days. But prices are still below the record high of USD 147.27 on July 11.

Source: - www.myiris.com