A day full of delight; sensex up by 345 points

Mumbai, Jul 20: It was a day full of surprise for the investors as the BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex) zoomed 351 points on firm global performance, especially that of American stocks and resultnat strong performance of the benchmark Asian indices.

The sensex swung 221 points touching a high of 10,409.58 and a low of 10,189 points on a day which did not face much volatility after the US federal Reserve chief Mr Ben Bernanke, yesterday night, assured the investors there will be no further hike in the Fed interest rates.

The benchmark Asian indices including Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and Indonesia all closed in the green. Japanese stocks surged on Thursday, with the TOPIX index posting its biggest one-day percentage gain in four years.

The BSE sectoral indices led by metals which was up by 5.21 per cent to 7810.14 points closed in the green. Other indices that performed extremely well today were - FMCG up by 3.56 per cent to 1919.95 points, Teck up by 3.00 per cent to 2526.90 points and IT up by 2.81 per cent to 3844.02 points.

According to experts, the investors have taken the West-Asia crisis involving Israel-Lebanon into their stride as a global phenomenon, since the crude oil prices came down to USD 72 per barrel mark.

The major gainers in the market were- Ranbaxy up 7.36 per cent to Rs 349.90, Reliance Energy up by 6.22 per cent to Rs 437.05, Tata steel up by 6.13 per cent to Rs 487.10, Hindalco up by 5.73 per cent to Rs 164.20, ICICI Bank up by 5.36 per cent to Rs 492.05, SBI up by 5.26 per cent to Rs 725.75, Satyam computers up by 4.75 per cent to Rs 688.55 , Reliance Communciations was up by 4.66 per cen tto Rs 249.25, bajaj Auto was up by 4.57 per cent to Rs 2499.85 and tata Motors was up by 4.48 per cent to Rs 687.55.

Besides the losers today were- Raymond, Bharat Earth Movers, Bharat Forge, Punj Lloyd, Arvind Mills, GAIL, Patni Computers, and Asian Paints all down between 0.59 to 5.11 per cent.

The breadth in the broader market was in the favour of 1,394 advances as against 977 declines out of total 2449 stocks traded on the BSE today.

UNI