Sensex resumes firm at 15,840.56 points

Mumbai, Apr 11: Benchmark of Sensitive index of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today resumed positive at 15,840.56 points with a gain of 145.46 points from it's last close of 15,695.10 points on reports of bullish trend at Asian markets which boosted domestic bources.

Brokers said, ''The market surged in early trade before paring gains. Realty, power stocks rose. Banking stocks gained ahead of the inflation data due. Reliance Energy and Bharat Heavy Electricals were major gainers from Sensex pack. The market breadth was strong. Asian stocks rose after Bank of America Securities upgraded US semi-conductor sector and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, raised its profit forecast. Key Benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China and Taiwan were up by between 0.74 per cent and 2.76 per cent.

Later, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up by 81.04 points or 0.52 per cent at 15,776.14. The Sensex gained 202.01 points at day's high of 15,897.11, hit in early trade.

The S &P CNX Nifty also rose by 40.85 points or 0.86 per cent at 4773.85 at the current trading from it's last close of 4733.00 points. Before it resumed flat at 4734.35 points. Later it recorded a high at 4790.25 points and a low at 4727.25 points during the mid-morning session.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up by 1.06 per cent at 6,547.32 and the BSE Small-Cap index was up by 0.95 per cent at 8,107.17.

Realty stocks were in limelight on heavy speculative demand from FIIs, such as DLF was up by 1.31 per cent to Rs 607.90, Indiabulls Real Estate rose by 3.39 per cent to Rs 486.50 and Unitech moved up by 1.29 per cent to Rs 266.50 edged higher.

Power stocks like NTPC rose by 0.67 per cent to Rs 187.25 followed by Reliance Energy by 3.58 per cent to Rs 1,298.20, Tata Power Company by 2.1 per cent to Rs 1,224.90 edged higher. India's second largest power utility by revenue Reliance Energy rose by 3.28 per cent to Rs 1,294.50 after the company said yesterday that it has spent about a third of the Rs 800 crore (USD 200 million) allocated for buying back shares from the stock market.

HDFC Bank was up by 1.77 per cent to Rs 1,349, ICICI Bank moved up by 1.94 per cent to Rs 816.50 and State Bank of India gained by 0.63 per cent to Rs 1,672.40 edged higher.

Jaiprakash Associates gained by 1.5 per cent to Rs 216 followed by Satyam Computer services by 1.45 per cent to Rs 429.60, Bharat Heavy Electricals by 1.4 per cent to Rs 1,790, ICICI Bank by 1.38 per cent to Rs 812, Wipro by 1.32 per cent to Rs 412 edged higher from the Sensex pack.

India's largest IT exporter by sales Tata Consultancy Services declined by 0.08 per cent to Rs 900 and was the lone loser from Sensex pack.

India's largest private sector firm by market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose by 1.07 per cent at Rs 2,494.

Another data inflation quoted high at 7.41 per cent for the year through March 29 2008. Inflation had surged to a three year high of 7 per cent in the week ended March 22 2008, sparking concerns that the Reserve Bank of India may tighten monetary policy. It in turn has caused volatility in bank stocks, brokers added.

UNI