Sensex up by 375.19 points, closes at 17, 353.54

Mumbai, May 15: The benchmark Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange today surged by 375.19 points or 2.21 per to close at 17,353.54 on sustained buying interest, triggered by positive global cues. The Sensex resumed the day 137.84 points up, over the 17K level, ending the session with a smart gain near its day's high of 17,366.19. Nifty index of National Stock Exchange posted a gain of 103.50 points at 5,115.30. Realty, oil&gas, Bank and Power stocks, which were in good demand today, supported the positive rally in the market, dealers said. The benchmark index of BSE had so far recovered 2544.05 points or 17.17 per cent from the low of 14,809.49, touched on March 17, 2008.

However, it was still 3853.23 points or 18.16 per cent down from its all-time intra-day high of 21206.77, hit on January 10 2008, marketmen observed. The market breadth was positive on BSE as 1737 shares advanced compared to 941 that declined, while 78 remained unchanged. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap ended up by 1.30 per cent at 7,079.89 and 8,546.41 respectively and underperformed the Sensex. Except FMCG index, all the sectoral indices of BSE ended in green. A turnover of Rs 6439 crore was quoted for BSE, which was higher as compared to Rs 6,219.35 crore in the previous session. Turnover in NSE's futures&options segment amounted to Rs 38196.16 crore as compared to Rs 32919.78 crore yesterday.

Index frontliner, Larsen&Toubro galloped 5.42 pc to Rs 2983.90 after French cement producer Lafarge announced the acquisition of L&T Concrete at an enterprise value of Rs 1480 crore. The deal involves L&T's 66 concrete plants across India with an estimated volume of 41 lakh cubic meters in 2008. It was the top gainer from Sensex pack. A total of 4.06 lakh shares changed hands on the counter.

Other index heavyweight like Reliance Industries (RIL) advanced 3.52 pc to Rs 2619 on 6.88 lakh shares. The stock moved in a range of Rs 2535 and Rs 2633.15 during the day. Realty major DLF was up 3.23 pc to Rs 643.10, Reliance Communications (RCom) jumped 5.40 pc to Rs 589.50 on reports that its infrastructure arm Reliance Infratel has received Securities&Exchange board of India (SEBI) approval for a public issue.

ICICI Bank gained 3.93 pc to Rs 931.50, Hindalco Industries moved up 5.30pc to Rs 202.50 and Maruti Suzuki India was up 3.05pc to Rs 821.50.

IT stocks pared gains on fresh buying as the Rupee continued the downslide against the US Dollar. Infosys Technologies gained 3.46pc to Rs 1889.40 after striking an intra-day high of Rs 1908, followed by Wipro up 0.91pc to Rs 508.20 and TCS up 2.02pc to Rs 989.55.

However, Satyam Computer Services settled 3.61pc lower at Rs 483.

UNI