The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 116 points at 20,323, and soon rallied to a high of 20,484 - just 14 points off the all-time peak of 20,498.
The index, thereafter, pared gains and exhibited steady movement for most part of the trading day. Some profit-taking towards the end saw the index finally end with a gain of 80 points at 20,287.
In the process, the index ended calendar year 2007 with a huge gain of 45.7% (6,300 points).
The NSE Nifty surged to a high of 6168 in opening trades - just 17 points short of its peak of 6185. The index finally settled with a gain of 59 points at 6139, and gained 54.8% (2,172 points) in 2007.
The market breadth was extremely positive - out of 2,929 stocks traded, 2,542 advanced, 372 declined and 15 were unchanged today.
INDEX MOVERS...
Bharti Airtel zoomed nearly 6% to Rs 995. NTPC advanced nearly 4% to Rs 250.
Mahindra & Mahindra surged over 3% to Rs 861. Ranbaxy and ITC rallied nearly 2.5% each to Rs 426 and Rs 210, respectively.
Reliance Communications moved up nearly 2% to Rs 747. ACC and Tata Motors added 1.5% each to Rs 1,024 and Rs 742, respectively.
...AND THE SHAKERS
HDFC dropped 1.8% to Rs 2,872.
Ambuja Cements and Infosys slipped 1.5% each to Rs 147 and Rs 1,768, respectively.
Hindustan Unilever, Cipla and Reliance Energy were down around 1% each at Rs 213, Rs 213 and Rs 2,135, respectively.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
IFCI topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 313.30 crore followed by debutant eClerx (Rs 275.60 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 215.30 crore), TRIL (Rs 191.60 crore) and another new entrant Brigade (Rs 183.20 crore).
IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 3.48 crore followed by G V Films (2.54 crore), Ispat Industries (1.66 crore), GTL Infrastructure (1.63 crore) and Tata Teleservices (1.42 crore).
