Sensex again crosses 12,000 mark

Mumbai, Oct 7: The key benchmark Sensex on Tuesday, Oct 7 crossed the 12,000 mark again and opened at 12,068.11 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), with a gain of 266.41 points, from it last finish of 11,801.70 on concerted action by regulators to ease liquidity boost in capital flows.

Similarly, the Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) also opened high at 3,606.95 points against the previous day's close of 3,602.35 on fresh speculative demand from Foreign Institutional Investors and others. Brokers said ''The market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) decision to lift restriction on issue of participatory notes and the Reserve Bank of India's surprise steep 50 basis cut in the cash reserve ration triggered a rebound on the bourses after steep losses of the past two trading sessions.

A recovery in Asian stocks following a larger than expected 100 basis points cut in interest rate by Australia's central bank today, and higher US futures contributed to early surge on the domestic bourses. Rate sensitive banking and realty stocks rose. Reliance Industries recovered from 52-week low. US futures were up. Nasdaq was up by 20 points and Dow Jones futures were up 121 points.

Later, the BSE 30-share Sensex is now up by 303.13 points to 12,104.83. The index recorded the day's high and low at 12,181.43 and 12,058.67 points respectively. The Nifty index is also up by 92.35 points to 3,694.70 points from its last finish. The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.63 pc at 4,415.10 and the BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.29 pc at 5,152.80. Reliance Industries rose 3.65 pc to Rs 1,700. The stock had hit a 52-week low of 1,632.10 yesterday.

Bank shares rose after the Reserve Bank of India announced a surprise cut in the cash reserve ratio, the proportion of deposits that banks must keep with it, by 50 basis points to free up Rs 20,000 crore. ICICI Bank was up 5.62 pc to Rs 518, State Bank of India rose 3.21 pc to Rs 1,480 and HDFC Bank was up 2.49 pc to Rs 1,231.80 edged higher.

Rate sensitive realty stocks rose. BSE Realty index rose 3.67 pc to 3,110.21 and was the top gainer from the sectoral indices on BSE.

Indiabulls Real Estate was up 3.69 pc to Rs 150.60, Unitech gained 5.24 pc to Rs 106.25 and DLF hiked 3.1 pc to Rs 309.95.

UNI