BSE Sensex up by 202.89 points

Mumbai, Apr 9: The Sensex today notched gains of 202.89 points to end firm at 15,790.51 with select heavyweight stocks advancing in choppy trade on heavy speculative demand from Foreign Institutional Investors and domestic investors.

The market surged in late trade, ending with decent gains, shrugging off subdued to weak trend in Asian and European markets. It had edged lower at the onset of the trading session, tracking weak trend in Asian markets before bouncing back shortly, brokers said. Asian and European stocks edged lower after Washington Mutual Inc, the largest US savings and loan firm, said yesterday, it expected a large quarterly loss and minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting indicated that some of the central bankers saw possibility of a prolonged and severe US economic downturn.

The 30-share BSE Sensex provisionally ended up by 202.89 points or 1.30 per cent at 15,790.51. At the day's high of 15,829.59, the Sensex gained 241.97 points in late trade. At the day's low of 15,464.72, Sensex lost 122.9 points in early trade.

The Sensex has shot up by 372.35 points in the last two days.

The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 5,294 crore compared to a turnover of Rs 5,145.99 yesterday.

The broader based S &P CNX Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) was up by 37.40 points or 0.79 pc at 4,747.05 at the end of the session from it last close of 4709.65 points. The Nifty index resumed low at 4708.05 to later record the day's high at 4758.25 and a low at 4667.50 points.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1819 shares advanced as compared to 811 that declined. 58 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE indices also were in limelight as CG index rose sharply by 333.63 points and ended firm at 12,862.47 points, followed by BANKEX index by 239.45 points at 8192.26 points, METAL Index by 234.38 points at 13,778.96 points, SML CAP index by 126.94 at 7941.11 points, OILS&GAS index by 106.16 at 10,571.03 points, Mid-Cap index by 88.49 to Rs 6,471.51 points, POWER index by 82.45 points at 3087.93 points and PSU index by 76.10 to 7316.32 points.

But, REALTY index declined by 117.46 and ended at a low of 7292.76 points and FMCG also eased by 11.45 to end at 2361.20 points on sustained selling pressure by local operators.

Banking stocks surged in late trade. Power stocks rose but Realty and IT stocks declined. Capital goods stocks rose on reports that Finance Minister P Chidambaram met representatives from auto and capital goods industries to discuss industrial slowdown after recent weak Index of Industrial Production (IIP) numbers.

The major leading stocks closed in green amid choppy trade.

Indian markets outperformed the Asian peers. On the global front, Asian markets were trading lower, Shanghai was down 5 per cent.

Buying support was seen from banking, capital goods, power, metal and oil stocks. Midcaps and small caps traded higher with a gain of over 1.5 per cent.

Top gainers on the bourses were L&T, BHEL, Tata Steel, Tata Power, Tata Communications and SAIL, while the losers were Grasim, Maruti, M&M, Unitech and Sterlite Industries.

Banking stocks surged in late trade. ICICI Bank was up by 3.44 pc to Rs 841.20 and HDFC Bank rose by 6.65 pc to Rs 1,391. State Bank of India was up by 1.33 pc to Rs 1,697. It has reportedly shortlisted three potential partners, including Insurance Australia Group, for a general insurance venture. The other two shortlisted partners are a German firm and a US-based firm.

Larsen&Toubro moved up by 2.55 pc to Rs 2,647, followed by Bharat Heavy Electricals by 4.1 pc to Rs 1,783 and Suzlon Energy by 4.25 per cent to Rs 302.05.

Power stocks like Reliance Power moved up 3.1 pc to Rs 362.25 followed by Reliance Energy by 2.3 pc to Rs 1,176.90, NTPC by 0.62 pc to Rs 187.70 and Tata Power Company by 4.84 pc to Rs 1,188.80.

The Finance Ministry has cleared a restructured Rs 50,000-crore accelerated power development and reforms programme (APDRP), which would soon be sent to the cabinet for approval.

India's largest private sector company in terms of market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose by 1.55 pc to Rs 2,418.05.

HDFC was up by 4.83 pc to Rs 2,421, Tata Steel rose by 3.44 pc to Rs 678.90, Ambuja Cements went up by 1.82 pc to Rs 120.20, Hindalco Industries gained by 1.38 pc to Rs 172.65 and Cipla was up by 2.42 pc to Rs 217.60.

Tata Consultancy Services was down by 0.98 pc to Rs 876.65 followed by Wipro by 0.56 pc to Rs 411.70 and Satyam Computer Services by 0.37 pc to Rs 427.50. However, India's second largest IT exporter by sales Infosys rose 1.27 pc to Rs 1,479.90.

Realty stocks also drifted with Indiabulls Real Estate down by 3.33 pc to Rs 479.80 followed by Housing Development Infrastructure by 2.02 pc to Rs 639.50, Unitech by 2.23 pc to Rs 263.35 and DLF by 0.91 pc to Rs 610.

India's biggest FMCG firm by sales Hindustan Unilever (HUL) declined by 1.39 pc to Rs 244.45. It has reportedly cut prices of three of its soap brands 'Lux', 'Hamam' and 'Rexona'. The price reduction by HUL is being termed as a post-budget measure to please consumers, reports said.

Jaiprakash Associates was down by 1.44 pc to Rs 218.35, followed by ITC by 1.2 pc to Rs 205.80, Ranbaxy Laboratories by 1.78 pc to Rs 462.35, Reliance Communications by 1.71 pc to Rs 492, Satyam Computer Services by 1.67 pc to Rs 421.90, Maruti Suzuki India by 1.65 pc to Rs 731.90, Bharti Airtel by 1.44 pc to Rs 816.65, brokers added.

UNI