Sensex resumes high at 19,827.40 pts, up by 44 pts
Mumbai,
Oct
31:
The
BSE
sensitive
index
today
opened
firm
at
19,827.40
points
with
a
small
gain
of
around
44
points
from
its
last
close
of
19,783.31
points
on
fresh
sepculative
demand
from
FIIs
and
mutual
fund
operators.
Brokers said, '' The market posted decent gains in early trade after shaky start, on selective buying in blue-chip stocks. Q2 September 2007 results announced so far have been decent to strong.
The market witnessed a bout of volatility in early trade. Market breadth was positive on BSE. Global cues were mixed. Asian markets were trading mixed this morning session.
Later, the current Sensex is still up by 139.28 points, or 0.70 per cent, to 19,922.79 from it last close. It had opened marginally higher at 19,827.40 and slipped to strike an intra-day low of 19,735.21. It rebounded from here to hit an intra-day high of 19,947.52 so far during the day.
The present broader based S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE is also up by 66.40 points, from it last close of 5868.75 points. It opened flat at 5868.90 points. Later it recorded a high at 5942.25 and a low at 5861.30 points in intra day trade.
India's second largest power utility by revenue Reliance Energy jumped by 5.37 pc to Rs 1885 after its board yesterday, approved a proposal to transfer its infrastructure projects to a separate wholly owned subsidiary.
Auto stocks made a comeback today on fresh buying. Tata Motors was up by 1.80 pc to Rs 781, followed by Maruti Suzuki India by 1.66 pc to Rs 1106, and Mahindra&Mahindra by 1.27 pc to Rs 750, edged higher. Auto scrips had dipped yesterday, when hopes of a near term cut in interest rates faded after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised banks' cash reserve ratio at its mid-term monetary policy review.
India's biggest oil exploration firm by market capitalisation Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) rose by 1.34 pc to Rs 1235.90 after it reported good Q2 results. ONGC's net profit rose 22.10 pc to Rs 5097.48 crore on 9.60 pc rise in net sales to Rs 15413.92 crore in Q2 September 2007 over Q2 September 2006. The results were announced after market hours on yesterday.
India's top listed cellular services provider by market capitalisation Bharti Airtel moved up by 1.33 pc to Rs 1013 after it reported a surge in net profit in Q2 September 2007 over Q2 September 2006.India's largest private sector entity in terms of market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries was down by 0.02 pc to Rs 2770 on 1.37 lakh shares.
India's largest software services exporter TCS slipped by 1.51 pc to Rs 1032 on high early volumes of 13.13 lakh shares, after two block deals of 3.01 lakh shares were executed on the counter at average price of Rs 1021 per share on BSE by 10:11 hrs.
Banking shares saw profit booking. HDFC Bank was down by 1.26 pc to Rs 1597.90 and ICICI Bank by 0.83 pc to Rs 1230.
The market is expected to stay cautious ahead of US Federal Reserve's meeting later in the day to consider interest rates.
Analysts speculate that Fed would cut rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, 31 October 2007. High volatility on the bourses cannot be ruled out. Cues from global markets were negative.
The bad news for the industry and the consumer is contrary to some expectations, interest rates are unlikely to soften in the near term. Asian markets were mixed today,as Hang Seng was down by 0.41 pc at 31,507.41 and Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted eased by 0.63 pc at 9,696.06 edged lower.
Singapore's Straits Times however, was up by 0.16 pc at 3,804.68, followed by South Korea's Seoul Composite by 0.05 pc at 2,053.46.
US stocks ended lower yesterday, as investors turned cautious ahead of the Fed meet. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped by 77.63 points or 0.56 pc to 13,792.63. The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite declined marginally by 0.73 points or 0.03 pc to 2816.71, while the broad-market Standard&Poor's 500 shed 9.96 points or 0.65 pc to 1531.02, brokers added.
UNI