Sensex crosses 13,500 mark, opens high at 13,501 pts

Mumbai, Dec 26 (UNI) The BSE Sensex today crossed 13,500 mark and opened high at 13,501 points from its last close of 13,471.74 points on fresh heavy speculative demand from FIIs and local investors, brokers said.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index (Sensex) opened on a firm note above the 13,500 mark and later crossed the 13,550 mark as buying intensified.

The 30-shares BSE Sensex was up 81.33 points at 13,553.07. It opened higher at 13,501.44 and has now rallied to a high of 13,558.77. Its low of the day is at 13490.77.

HDFC Bank was the top gainer, up 1.83 pr cent to Rs 1,024 on 4,441 shares ITC (up 1.62 per cent to Rs 172.40) and Cipla (up 1.53 per cent to Rs 251.70) were the other gainers Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was up 0.29 per cent to Rs 1,275 on 67,242 shares Hero Honda was the top loser, down 0.49 per cent to Rs 746 on 6,726 shares.

Volatility is expected to remain high ahead of the expiry of December futures contracts on December 28, 2006 (Thursday).

Participation by FIIs is also expected to remain low as most fund managers would have proceeded on a Christmas vacation, which will last till the New Year.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Japan's Nikkei was down 0.07 per cent or 12.29 points at 17,080.60, South Korea's Seoul Composite was down 0.55 per cent or 7.94 points at 1,429.55. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index surged 0.51 per cent or 97.68 points at 19,320.52, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted gained 1.20 per cent or 91.91 points at 7,738.72 while Singapore's Straits Times was flat at 2,940.81 The Dow Jones had closed at 12,343.22, down 0.63 per cent, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq had lost 0.53 per cent and 0.61 per cent to close at 1,410.76 and 2,401.18 respectively on December 22 this year (Friday), brokers added.

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