Sensex opens firm at 14,151.62 points

Mumbai, Jan 25: The Sensex today opened on a firm note at14,151.62 with a modest gain of 41.16 points from it's last close of14,110.46 on the Bombay Stocks Exchange(BSE) on fresh speculativebuying support from Foreign Iinstitutional Iinvestors(FIIs) and mutualfunds.

The market opened on a firm note as short covering continued ahead of expiry of January 2007 derivatives contracts.

Later, the BSE Sensex was up 48.26 points to 14158.72. It openedhigher at 14151.62 and surged to hit a high of 14209.41. Its low was at14137.82.

Meanwhile the S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE also resumed higherat 4092.05 points. The Nifty index recorded a high at 4120.90 pointsand a low at 4090.10 points during the mid-morning session. The currentindex is quoted firm at 4104.70 points with a mdoest gain of around 15points from it last close 4089.90 points.

Tata Steel was the top gainer, up by 1.94 per cent to close at Rs 490.80 on 1.02 lakh shares.

Hindalco (up 1.81 per cent to Rs 171.90), Bhel (up 1.47 per centto Rs 2405.20), and Dr Reddy's (up 1.01 per cent to Rs 770.70) were theother gainers.

HDFC rose 0.63 per cent to Rs 1653. It reported 25 per cent growthin net profit to Rs 355.49 crore (Rs 284.52 crore) which was at the topend of analysts' expectations. Net interest income rose 23 per cent toRs 507.01 crore (Rs 412.19 crore).

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was up by 0.16 per cent to close at Rs 1371 on 55740 shares.

Bharti Airtel was the top loser, down by 1.65 per cent to close at Rs 675.60 on 23756 shares.

Cipla (down 0.68 per cent to Rs 247), SBI (down 0.49 per cent toRs 1167.15) and Hero Honda (down 0.45 per cent to Rs 715) were theother losers.

Max India jumped 5.28 per cent to Rs 1025, after its board approved a 5-for-1 stock split.

Asian markets were trading on a mixed note. The Nikkei was down by0.22 per cent at 17,468.57, having earlier hit 17,617.64, its highestsince July 2000.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up by 87.97 points or 0.70per cent to close at 12,621.77. The Standard&Poor's 500 Index wasup 12.14 points, or 0.85 per cent, at 1,440.13.

The Nasdaq Composite Index was up by 34.87 points, or 1.43 per cent to close at 2,466.28.

The Dow hit an all-time intraday high of 12,623.45 and recordedits first-ever close over 12,600. The S&P 500 rose to its highestclose since September 2000 and recorded its best one-day percentagegain in a month.

NYMEX crude for March delivery eased 13 cents, or around a quarter of a percent, to USD 55.24 a barrel, brokers said.

Trading in BSE and NSE will remained officially closed tomorrow onaccount of Rupblic day. However, it will resume trading on Monday.

UNI