Sensex up by 151.35 pts, closes at 13,859.69 pts

Mumbai, Dec 27: The Sensex zoomed up by 151.35 points today on the Bombay Stock Exchange and closed firm at 13,859.69 on sustained heavy bull support by Foreign Institutional Investors (FII's) and financial institutional investors.

The Sensex has moved up by 387.95 points in the last two days.

The market lived up to the promise it showed at the start of the session, with the Sensex hitting an intra-day high above 13,900, at 13,911.59, in late-afternoon session of trading.

The 30-shares BSE Sensex settled at 151.35 points higher, at 13,859.69. It had opened with an upward gap at 13,734.01, as buying continued following a 237-point surge in the previous session. It's low for the day was at 13,734.01.

The BSE BANKEX and IT indices also shot up sharply by 129.40 points and 92.05 poinhts respectively. They closed higher at 7080.55 for BANKEX index and for IT index at 5289.03 points, followed by AUTO index by 59.08 points and was quoted at 5493.00 points. TECK index was up by 55.85 points and touched 3657.39 poits, MID CAP index was up by 46.41 points and quoted at 5744.10 points. OIL&GAS index was up by 43.53 points and touched 6237.00 points, SML CAP index was higher by 33.80 points and touched 6839.36 points. PSU index was up by 25.39 points and closed at 6041.65 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE rose 34.25 points or 0.86 per cent, to 3,974.25 points before it resumed high at 3942.75 points. The index recorded a high and a low at 3986.75 points and 3937.70 points during the intra day.

High volatility is expected ahead of an impending expiry of the December futures contracts tomorrow.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 3,637 crore. The market-breadth was strong on BSE, with 1,358 shares advancing compared to 1,263 that declined. Interestingly, the advancers to decliners ratio is falling, an indication of pressure growing on small-cap and mid-cap stocks. A substantial 82 shares remained unchanged. Among the 30-Sensex pack, 23 advanced while the rest declined.

The Nikkei share average rose to its highest in more than seven months on Wednesday, gaining 0.31 per cent as shares of Toyota Motor Corp gained on a report that its chairman met the chief executive of Ford Motor Co, in the first step towards striking a potential partnership.

The Nikkei was up 53.96 points at 17,223.15, its highest since early May.

The US market ended higher on Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrial average ended 27.48 points, or 0.22 per cent, higher at 12,370.70.

The Standard&Poor's 500 Index was up 4.35 points, or 0.31 per cent at 1,415.11, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 6.36 points, or 0.26 per cent, at 2,407.54.

Oil futures plunged over a dollar to less than USD 61 a barrel on Tuesday, extending losses last week, as mild weather in the US curbed demand for winter fuel. The slide wiped out early gains that were driven by worries Iran might disrupt oil flows in response to UN sanctions. US crude fell USD 1.56 to USD 60.85 a barrel by evening, while Brent crude dropped USD 1.54 to USD 60.88 a barrel.

IT stocks witnessed renewed buying interest. Satyam Computers was the top gainer, up 3.24 per cent to Rs 492, on a volume of 8.67 lakh shares. Infosys Technologies rose by 1.65 per cent to Rs 2,256.05. As per media reports, Infosys is in talks with ten international banks for offering them Finacle, its banking software.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) advanced 0.23 per cent to Rs 804, on a volume of 2.58 lakh shares, after surging to a high of Rs 840 in early trade. The drugmaker expects - 50 million in revenue from the six-month exclusivity post patent-expiry on Zofran, an anti- nausea drug.

State Bank of India edged up by 0.13 per cent to Rs 1,247.50, after it announced a 50 bps hike in prime lending rate to 11.5 per cent.

SBI's board met in Kochi yesterday and hiked the benchmark prime lending rate (PLR) by 50 bps to 11.50 per cent. The hike comes into effect from today. As a result, home loans, corporate borrowings as well as personal loans by the PSU bank are set to become costlier.

Reliance Industries (RIL) was up 1.43 per cent to Rs 1,296, on a volume of 8.61 lakh shares.

ONGC was the top loser, down by 1.59 per cent to Rs 874. The oil exploration PSU had declared an interim dividend of Rs 18 per share.

As per provisional data, FIIs were net sellers of equities worth Rs 210.28 crore yesterday. The benchmark BSE Sensex rallied by 237 points (1.76 per cent), to settle at 13,708.34.

UNI