Sensex rises by 79.58 points, closes at 13,696.31

Mumbai, Nov 30 (UNI) The Sensex rose by 79.58 points and closed at 13,696.31 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today on fresh speculative demand from Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and domestic investors.

The market, which softened from a peak, regained strength in the fag hours. The Sensex crossed 13,700 as buying resumed after the settlement of November 2006 derivative contracts. The November contracts expired today. As per reports, NSE F&O Open Interest had shot up by Rs 1,008 crore, to Rs 60,719 crore.

The 30-shares BSE Sensex finished with a gain of 79.58 points (0.58 per cent). It was off the higher level after hitting 13,745.16, the day's high, within minutes of commencement of trade.

Its low for the day was 13,630.58.

The BSE BANKEX index shot up by 91.34 and closed at 7179.71 while IT and TECK indices also advanced by 69.48 points and 48.04 points respectively and were quoted at 5107.22 for IT index and TECK index at 3559.50.

But the BSE METAL index major crashed by 101.15 to close at 8879.95 while PSU index declined by 22.63 points to close at 6192.03 followed by CD index and AUTO index eased by 21.21 points and 15.50 points respectively and touched a low at 3344.58 for CD Index and 5321.85 for AUTO index.

The S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE rose by 26.30 points (0.67 per cent), to 3,954.50. Before it resumed high at 3929.40. The index recorded a high at 3973.00.

The market-breadth was negative, with 1,341 shares declining on BSE, compared to 1,217 that advanced. As many as 58 shares remained unchanged. The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 3,954 crore. Among the 30-Sensex pack, 18 advanced while the rest declined.

Crude oil prices eased, for the first time, this week on Thursday, but remained near a two-month high above USD 62 after a surprise draw-down in US winter fuel stocks and signs of solid economic growth in the world's top consumer.

All Asia/Pacific markets were trading in the positive, while European indices were a mixed bag.

The Nikkei ended up 198.13 points, at 16,274.33, the highest since November 14, 2006. Hang Seng index rose by 0.96 per cent, or 179.55 points, to 18,960.48. The annual growth rate in the second quarter of the 2006/07 financial year was higher than the April-June rate of 8.9 per cent.

US stocks jumped on Wednesday, after the government raised its estimate for economic growth, and a surge in oil price lifted energy stocks, helping major indices recover most of the ground they lost from a big sell-off early in the week.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose by 90.28 points, or 0.74 per cent, to finish at 12,226.73, while the Standard&Poor's 500 Index jumped by 12.76 points, or 0.92 per cent, to close at 1,399.48.

The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced by 19.62 points, or 0.81 per cent, to end at 2,432.23, brokers said.

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