Bullish phase continued on bourses; Sensex gains 162 pts

Mumbai, Sep 28 (UNI) Tracking firm trend in global markets and backed by sustained buying from foreign institutional investors stock market have maintained the firm trend with the BSE Sensex registering an handsome gain of 162 points in morning trade.

The 30-stocks Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex was trading at 17313.48 points, up by 162.90 points from the previous close within first hour trade at the BSE.

The S&P Cnx Nifty at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) continued its upward move and shot up further by 42.50 pionts at 5043.05 points from the previous close.

Index heavyweights like ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, L&T and Reliance Industries were the leading movers among the Sensex stocks.

US stocks closed with marginal gains, The Standard&Poor's 500 Index added 5.96 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 1,531.38. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 34.79 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 13,912.94.

The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 10.56 points, or 0.4 per cent to 2,709.59.

European shares advanced, paced by gains in construction companies and airlines, though BMW weakened after revealing a new strategy.

The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index rose 0.8% to 377.83.

The UK's FTSE 100 closed up 0.8 per cent at 6,486.40, while the French CAC-40 advanced 0.8 per cent to 5,733.37 and the German DAX 30 rose 0.6 per cent to 7,853.79.

Most emerging markets were also reported gains today.

However, Asian markets were trading mostly flat to slightly lower though shares in China were up sharply. The Nikkei in Tokyo was down 47 points at 16,784 while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was up 12 points at 27,077. The Kospi in Seoul was down 4 points and the Straits Times in Singapore fell by 9 points.

UNI