Sensex opens rise smartly by 150 pts

Mumbai, Oct 3: The BSE sensex today opened high by around 150 points to 17,467.41 points from it previous day's close on sustained heavy speculative demand from FIIs and some domestic financial institutional investors, brokers said.

The market spurted in opening trade with Sensex and S&P CNX Nifty hitting fresh all-time high after more bad news on the US housing market kept alive hopes of further US interest rate cuts after last month"s steep 50 basis points cut in fed funds rate to 4.75 per cent (pc) from 5.25 pc. Power stocks hogged the limelight. Reliance Industries advanced. Asian markets opened on a strong note.

Later, Sensex was up 387.76 points or 2.22 pc at 17,710.41. It hit a all-time high of 17,821.48 in early trade. It hit a low of 17,467.41 during the day.

Similarly, the S&P CNX Nifty of National Stock Exchange (NSE) resumed high at 5,069.00. Later it hit an all-time high of 5,226.15 in early trade today. Meanwhile, it came down at 5066.20 in Intraday trade.

Shares of power generating and distribution companies hogged the limelight. Tata Power Company surged 20.11 pc to Rs 1,094. NTPC rose 7.14 pc to Rs 220.70 and was the top gainer amongst the Sensex pack.

Reliance Energy rose 3.15 pc to Rs 1,391.90.

The rally was attributed to the proposed public issue of Reliance Power. The unlisted power arm of Anil Ambani is planning additional capacity worth 25,000 megawatts through new projects.

Reliance Communications (up 6.06 pc to Rs 649), ONGC (up 3.54 pc to Rs 1032.35), Infosys (up 2.48 pc to Rs 1940) were the other gainers among the Sensex pack.

BSE Realty index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices.

The largest private sector company and oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) was up 1.82 pc to Rs 2,331.

ABG Heavy Industries hit 5 pc upper circuit to Rs 300.65. Two foreign shipping firms, Zim Integrated Shipping Services and Mediterranean Shipping Co, have reportedly have approached ABG Heavy Industries for acquiring stake in the company.

Sobha Developers rose 1.82 pc to Rs 908. The company announced before the market hours today it has entered in to a joint development agreement with QVC Realty and Chintels India, to develop an integrated township spread over 192 acres in Gurgaon, Haryana. The project is estimated to involve investment of Rs 2000 crore.

India's largest real estate developer in terms of revenue, DLF rose 7.97 pc top Rs 827. The Karnataka government has awarded the 9,187-acre Bidadi Knowledge City, which will be positioned as New Bangalore, to DLF. Dubai-government owned Limitless will own half the venture.

Ranbaxy Laboratories rose 2.04 pc to Rs 450. It has received US health regulators' approval to manufacture and market the oral suspension of clarithromycin, for treating certain bacterial infections. Ranbaxy is the first company to have been granted a generic approval for the oral suspension form along with clarithromycin tablets, said in a statement.

Larsen and Toubro (L&T) , the largest engineering and construction company in India in terms of revenue rose 1.72 pc to Rs 2863. It has reportedly floated a new arm, L&T Power Projects (L&T PPL), to foray into the booming power generation business.

Kemrock Industries&Exports rose 1.55 pc to Rs 536 , it said today, it would raised up to Rs 117 crore through an issue of equity shares on a preferential basis at not more than Rs 450 per share.

Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) rose 2.68 pc to Rs 141.85 , said after trading hours on Monday, 1 October 2007, it has bought 100 pc in Godrej Global Mideast FZE, Sharjah.

Asian markets extended their recent solid run today, Hong Kong"s Hang Seng (up 1.25 pc to 28,567.22), Singapore's Straits Times (up 1.09 pc at 3,835.20), Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (up 0.99 pc to 9,718.18) and Japan's Nikkei (up 0.51 pc at 17,133.86) edged higher.

Heavy FII buying and hopes of a further cut interest rates by the US Federal Reserve at its next policy meeting on 30 October 2007-31 October 2007 has boosted bourses. From a low of 13,989.11 on 21 August 2007, Sensex galloped a whopping 3,339.51 points or 23.8 pc to 17,328.62 on Monday, October 1, 2007.

As per provisional data, FIIs bought shares worth a net Rs 1721.74 crore on Monday, October 1, 2007. Domestic institutions sold shares worth a net Rs 930 crore on that day.

US blue-chip stocks edged lower yesterday, as investors booked profits a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record high. Dow lost 40.24 points or 0.29 pc at 14,047.31. But the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose 6.12 points or 0.2 pc at 2,747.11, brokers added.

UNI