Sensex crosses 14,000 mark, closes 14,014.92 pts

Mumbai, Jan 3: The Sensex today crossed the 14,000 mark, closing firm at 14,014.92 on the Bombay Stock Exchange with a sharp gain of 72.68 points on sustained heavy speculative demand from Foreign Institutional Investors (FII's) and some mutual funds.

The market staged a smart recovery in the second half of the day's trading session, after slipping to an intra-day low of 13,897.42 in mid-morning trade, as buying interest resumed for index pivotals at lower level.

The 30-shares BSE Sensex settled 72.68 point (0.52 per cent) higher at 14,014.92 points, an all time closing high. It struck an all time high of 14,035.67 points in mid afternoon trade surpassing its previous all time high of 14,035.30 points, which it had struck on December 6. Its low for the day was at 13,897.42 points The BSE IT and SML CAP indices shot up by 81.47 points and 76.36 points respectively and closed at 5450.51 points for IT index and for SML CAP index at 7080.46 points, followed by MID CAP index by 60.85 points and touched 5932.38 points. CD index was up by 58.14 points and quoted 3666.34 points, TECK index by 48.18 points and closed at 3749.10 points, AUTO index by 26.26 points and closed at 5722.30 points, PSU index by 23.71 points and touched 6097.02 points and BANKEX index by 22.93 points and closed at 7143.36 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE rose 16.65 points to 4,024.05 points before it resumed flat at 4,007.70 points. The Nifty index recorded a high at 4,029.80 points and a low at 3985.00 points during the session.

The market-breadth was strong, as buying continued for small-cap and mid-cap stocks. For 1,695 shares advancing on BSE, 933 declined.

Just 64 shares were unchanged.

The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 4,286 crore as compared to Rs 3381 crore yesterday. Among the 30-Sensex pack, 20 advanced while the rest declined.

Most of the Asian markets were trading with gains today. Hong Kong (up 0.51 per cent) and Singapore (up 1.74 per cent) edged higher, whereas Seoul Composite (down 1.81 per cent) and Taiwan index (down 0.04 per cent) slipped.

Oil prices eased on Wednesday in Asian trade, in a market focused on mild North American weather. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, slipped 18 cents to USD 60.87 a barrel.

Bajaj Auto was the top gainer, up 3.85 per cent to Rs 2844, on 89735 shares. The company had reported strong sales for December 2006 on Monday. Its December sales rose 24 per cent to 214,928 units from a year ago. Pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories advanced 3.80 per cent to Rs 413.50, on a volume of 5.13 lakh shares. The company's alliance with Ipca Laboratories received US Food and Drug Administration approval to sell atenolol tablets in the United States. Atenolol is indicated in the management of hypertension.

IT stocks witnessed renewed buying interest ahead of their December quarterly results. Infosys (up 1.85 per cent to Rs 2315), TCS (up 2.30 per cent to Rs 1277.25) and Wipro (up 1.06 per cent to Rs 618) edged higher.

Satyam Computers was up by 1.31 per cent to Rs 515.25 on a high volume of 20.21 lakh shares. A block deal of 14.30 lakh shares was struck in the counter on BSE in early trade, at Rs 512.50 per share.

Tata Motors rose 1.22 per cent to Rs 941.25, as its vehicle sales rose 37 per cent in December 2006 to 48,792 units from 35,598 units a year earlier. The stock came off its intra-day high of Rs 959.45 struck in early trade. Tata Motors commercial vehicles sales rose 50 per cent in December 2006 to 28,179 units from 18,730 units, while sales of passenger vehicles rose 27 per cent to 16,515 units.

Exports rose 7 per cent to 4,098 units.

Gujarat Ambuja Cements gained 0.52 per cent to Rs 144.95, after the company said on Tuesday cement shipments for the year ending December 2006 rose 11.3 per cent to 16.33 million tonnes, from 14.67 million a year earlier. Production in the year rose 11.7 per cent to 16.34 million tonnes, the company said in a statement.

Engineering and construction major L&T rose 1.10 per cent to Rs 1475, after it secured an order valued at Rs 418 crore from the Abu Dhabi Water&Electricity Authority for the construction of six major electrical substations in the Al Ain sector of Abu Dhabi. The project will be completed within 18 months.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was up 0.34 per cent to Rs 1286 on 4.86 lakh shares. The stock moved in broad range of Rs 1256 - 1291.80.

FMCG major HLL was the top loser, down 1.94 per cent to Rs 212.25, on 9.06 lakh shares.

Tata Steel (down 1.55 per cent to Rs 471), Hero Honda (down 1.55 per cent to Rs 772) and ITC (down 0.90 per cent to Rs 175.25) were the other losers.

Cement major ACC dropped 1.23 per cent to Rs 1079, after the company reported a muted 3.1 per cent growth in cement dispatches for the month just gone by. ACC said on Wednesday its December 2006 shipments rose 3.1 per cent to 1.65 million tonnes from 1.60 million tonnes a year ago. The company said production in December totalled 1.63 million tonnes, up from 1.57 million a year ago, brokers added.

UNI