Sensex opens high at 13,695.60 pts, up 81 pts

Mumbai, Dec 18: The BSE Sensex today opened high at 13,695.60 points with a handsome gain of 81.08 points from it's last close of 13,614.52 points, on fresh speculative buying support from Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and local investors, brokers said.

Sensex opened at 13,695.60, an up by 81.08 points. It hit a high of 13,725.67 at intra day.

Meanwhile, the S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE resumed at 3888.20 points. Later, it recorded a high and low at 3921.50 and 3828.15 points respectively, during the mid-morning session. The current index is quoted low at 3845.00 points with a modest loss of 43 points from it's last close of 3888.65 points.

ONGC surged by 5 per cent to Rs 859 following reports that it has made a huge gas find in the Bay of Bengal, with initial estimates suggesting reserves of about 21 trillion cubic feet. Ranbaxy gained 2.4 per cent to Rs 384.

Tata Steel (up 1.4 per cent to Rs 465.70) extended Friday's rebound. Tata Steel has paid advance tax of Rs 780 crore for the third installment, taking it's total advance tax payment for this fiscal to 1410 crore compared to Rs 1443 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Reliance Communications (RCL) rose by 0.8 per cent to Rs 470 extending it's last three days rally.

Software major Infosys shed 1.2 per cent to Rs 2205. Reliance Industries eased 0.1 per cent to Rs 1252.

L T Overseas was trading at Rs 56.20, slightly above the Initial Price Offering (IPO) price of Rs 56. The stock debuted on the bourses today.

Asian markets were mostly in the green. Key benchmark indices in Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan were up by between 0.3 per cent to 1.3 per cent, brokers added.

UNI