Heavy buying lifts Sensex to 13,555 points

Mumbai, Nov 16: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex today surged to another all-time high of 13,555.57 points, due to sustained buying by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), stock brokers said.

At 10:18 IST the BSE 30-shares Sensex was up 70.27 points, at 13,539.64. It's low was at 13,493.60.

S&P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) resumed flat at 38.76.40 points. The Nifty index recorded a new peak at 3895.70 points during the mid-morning session. It later dipped to 3,874.80 points. The current index is quoted high at 3,888.95 with a modest gains of 12 points from it previous day's close at 3876.30 points.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 1,193 crore, boosted by two huge block deals of 25.03 lakh shares each at the Gujarat Ambuja counter, at an average price of Rs 138.42 per share.

Market-breadth was strong on the BSE with 1,012 shares advancing, while only 434 declining.

Among the Sensex pack, 23 advanced while the rest declined.

Banking stocks extended their rally today. Private sector banking major ICICI Bank was the top gainer, up 3 per cent at Rs 907.25 on 1.39 lakh shares. It had surged to an all-time high of Rs 912 in early trade. HDFC Bank advanced 2.85 per cent at Rs 1,108.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 1.23 per cent at Rs 1,277.60 on 95,486 shares.

ONGC was the top loser, down 0.88 per cent at Rs 873.10.

Thermax jumped 6 per cent at Rs 355, after reporting 38.6 per cent growth in net profit for Q2 September 2006. The company has a robust order-book position with a order backlog of Rs 2,973 crore on a consolidated basis as on 30 September 2006.

US stocks rose yesterday as a proposed airline merger lifted airline shares and after positive broker comments sparked a surge in Google Inc's shares. However, all three major US indexes ended sharply off the session's levels after minutes from the Federal Reserve's recent policy-setting meeting sparked worries that the central bank can delay interest-rate cuts as it fights to keep a lid on inflation. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 33.70 points, or 0.28 per cent, to end at a record 12,251.71.

The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 12.09 points, or 0.50 per cent, to close at 2,442.75. A key US data, US consumer prices data, is due later in the day.

US crude was steady at USD 58.76 after climbing 48 cents on yesterday, boosted by US data showing a sharp fall in fuel inventories and after OPEC signalled it may need to cut crude output again in December, brokers added.

UNI

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