Sensex closes firm at 13,614.52 pts, up 127 pts

Mumbai, Dec 15: The Sensex continued its upward trend on the Bombay Stock Exchange today, closing higher at 13,614.52 with a handsome gain of 127.36 following bullish advices from global bourses coupled with heavy speculative demand by Foreign Institutioal Institutions (FII's) and local investors.

Firm global markets, a psychologically important decline in inflation and provisional data showing heavy FII buying on Thursday, boosted the market. The BSE benchmark index traded in the green throughout the session.

Nifty pared gains after scaling 3,908.45 in mid-afternoon trade.

Technical analysts feel that 3,900-3,920 is a key resistance level for Nifty. Only a decision close to that level will indicate resumption of uptrend, they say. Nifty also has a strong support at 3,700 level, market participants feel.

The BSE Sensex also dipped to a low of 13,545.60 and a high of 13,669.65 before it resumed positive at 13,545.60 points.

The BSE METAL and BANKEX indices shot up smartly by 333.75 and 95.46 points and closed at 8802.53 points for METAL index and for BANKEX index at 6994.78 points, followed by SML CAP index by 73.39 points and touched 6667.91 points, CD index was up by 65.58 points and closed at 3403.06 points. CG index was up by 60.43 points and quoted at 9224.20 points, PSU index was higher by 56.49 points and touched 5967.82 points. MID CAP index was up by 44.40 points and quoted at 5661.37 points while AUTO index was up by 41.79 and closed at 5262.42 points.

The market-breadth was strong. For 1,549 shares rising on BSE, 1,007 declined. A total of 71 shares were unchanged. The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 4,150 crore.

Asian and European markets were steady-to-firm. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan and London were up 0.3 - 1 per cent. US stocks surged on Thursday, driving the Dow industrials to a record close on strong earnings from companies such as investment bank, Bear Stearns Company, and an improving outlook for the US economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 99.26 points, or 0.81 per cent, while the Standard&Poor's 500 Index jumped 12.28 points, or 0.87%, to end at 1,425.49.

The Nasdaq Composite Index finished up 21.44 points, or 0.88 per cent, at 2,453.85, which gave a boost to Indian bourses, a leading broker said.

International rating agency S&P said on Thursday, it is looking to upgrade India's sovereign rating.

Nymex crude rose 27 cents, to USD 62.78 a barrel, extending Thursday's near 2 per cent surge due to an OPEC decision to cut production once again, brokers said.

Scrips of PSU banks surged after data released at noon revealed that inflation had eased to 5.16 per cent. Canara Bank surged by 9.9 per cent to Rs 291.90, Bank of Baroda rose 4.7 per cent to Rs 246 and Bank of India gained 4.4 per cent to Rs 193.25. State Bank of India gained by 3 per cent to Rs 1,261.

But Reliance Industries (RIL) declined in volatile trade. The stock shed 0.7 per cent to Rs 1252.55. Reports today indicated that RIL had paid Rs 444 crore towards the third instalment of advance tax due today.

Battered Tata Steel surged 5.5 per cent to Rs 460. A strong 27.3 lakh shares changed hands in the counter on BSE. The stock rose on bargain-hunting, after a steep fall caused by concerns over its bidding war with Brazil's CSN. Both are locked in a deadly duel over European steel maker Corus Group.

Reliance Communications surged 4 per cent to Rs 466, extending its rebound of the last two days, amid reports of the company chasing Hutchison's India operations.

Hindalco was up by nearly 4 per cent to Rs 177.95, tracking firm global copper prices. The stock rose on a huge volume of 38.2 lakh shares on BSE.

Select IT pivotals gained, tracking overnight gains in their ADRs.

Satyam Computer rose by 3 per cent to Rs 481.70, after its ADR rose by 3.6 per cent to USD 23.79. Infosys rose 1.8 per cent to Rs 2,239; its ADR rose 2.1 per cent to USD 55.20.

ACC (up 2.2 per cent to Rs 1,055) held firm. The board of ACC has approved an expenditure of about Rs 1,480 crore to raise the capacity of the New Wadi plant, by about 3 million tonnes per annum.

Grasim gained 2.9 per cent to Rs 2,741, extending its recent surge.

UNI

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