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Market rides Asian upswing; Sensex spurts over 83 points, 3167.22

Encouraged by an uptrend in Asian stock markets and renewed buying support from foreign institutional investors, pivotals staged smart recovery at the Bombay Stock Exchange lifting the BSE Sensex up by 83 points on the first day of the current settlement today.

The market opened on a firm note and continued the upward trend throughtout the day.

According to marketmen, the FIIs have made heavy purchases in the heavy-weighted counters like ITC, BHEL and Zee Telefilms. The domestic institutional investors like Unit Trust of India reportedly resorted to selling in the index-based scrips, they said.

Reflecting the bullish phase, the BSE Sensex opened at 3134.68 points, touched the day's high of 3169.55, touched the day's low of 3133.01 and finished at 3167.22 points, showing a net gain of 83.56 points against the Friday's close of 3083.56 points.

Commenting on the uptrend, Navin Agrawal of the SVS Securities said: ''The market has exhibited uptrend probably because of higher badla rates, and we will have to watch how it goes.''

The badla rates have firmed up coupled with a good rise in the net outstandings position from Rs 5.29 billion to Rs 5.75 billion at the end of previous week, market sources said.

Share prices in Japan, Hong Kong, London and Singapore also reported moderate gains on Monday, a report said.

According to a overseas report, the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei stock average in Tokyo rose 310.39 points, or 2.25 per cent, to close at 14,227.37. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was 0.48 per cent higher at 7,614.86 at mid-day. London and New York markets also reported moderate gains, the report added.

In India, the broad-based BSE-100 index advanced by 35 points to 1400.10 points against the previous close of 1365.10 points. The BSE-200 and Dollex indices also closed higher by 7.31 and 2.92 points to 322.21 and 126.25 points against Friday's close of 314.90 and 123.33 points respectively.

Among the gainers, ABB drifted higher by Rs 12.50 to Rs 513.25, Atlas Copco by Rs 4.40 to Rs 160.40, Bajaj Auto Rs 5.50 to Rs 642.50, BHEL Rs 8.70 to Rs 260, BSES Rs 5.40 to Rs 165.50, Cadbury Rs 5.50 to Rs 399.25, Castrol Rs 10.50 to Rs 596.75, Colgate Rs 7.20 to Rs 192, Dr Reddy's Rs 10.75 to Rs 432, Glaxo Rs 14 to Rs 424.75, Grasim Rs 7.90 to Rs 153.10, Glaxo Rs 7.90 to Rs 161, Gujarat Ambuja Cement Rs 14.80 to Rs 200.50, Hero Honda Rs 3 to Rs 580, Hindustan Lever Rs 14.50 to Rs 1692, Hindalco rose by Rs 36.25 to Rs 491.50, Indian Hotels Rs 10 to Rs 350, Indian Rayon by Rs 7.60 to Rs 135.70, ITC added Rs 25.50 to Rs 695.50, L&T Rs 11.90 to Rs 194.80, M&M Rs 5.70 to Rs 175, MTNL Rs 5.70 to Rs 217.50, NIIT Rs 12.50 to Rs 1311, Pentfour Software Rs 20.75 to Rs 608.00, Pond's Rs 6.25 to Rs 1230, Reliance Rs 6.10 to Rs 123.60, State Bank Rs 8.20 to Rs 206.70, Telco Rs 5.10 to Rs 146, Tata Power Rs 2.10 to Rs 93.35, Tisco Rs 3.05 to Rs 91.20, Tata Tea Rs 3 to Rs 292 and Zee Telefilms gained smartly by Rs 48 to Rs 651.

The BSE declared pay-out today in respect of A, B1 and B2 group securities for settlement number 24, period ended September 4.

Total turnover on the BSE rose to Rs 12.40 billion from Friday's turnover of Rs 10.55 billion.

Tobacco giant ITC topped the list by registering highest turnover of Rs 2.52 billion, followed by Zee Telefilms Rs 1.51 billion, Satyam Computer Rs 1.49 billion, Reliance Rs 1.45 billion and State Bank of India Rs 1.02 billion.

Other actively traded scrips were Pentafour Software Rs 650.1 million, Castrol India Rs 276.4 million, Tata Tea Rs 248.5 million, Hindustan Lever Rs 184.1 million, L&T Rs 180.4 million, BHEL Rs 162.6 million, NIIT Rs 160.6 million, Infosys Tech Rs 159.8 million, Gujarat Ambuja Rs 119 million and Novartis Rs 108.2 million.

UNI