Sensex opens high at 14,406.88 points

Mumbai, Feb 19: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex today opened firm at 14,406.88 points from its last close of 14,355.55 points on fresh speculative demand from Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and mutual funds, brokers said.

The Sensex has, however, slipped into red on profit-booking, which began soon after the strong opening.

The Sensex surged to a high of 14,465.38 points as buying continued. From this point, it started falling and touched a low of 14,385.78 points during the mid-morning session.

Telecom services provider Bharti Airtel was the top gainer, up by 1.86 per cent, to Rs 806.50 on a volume of 51,264 shares.

Among other gainers, Wipro was up 1.78 per cent to Rs 688, HLL up 1.34 per cent to Rs 208.50 and Bajaj Auto up 1.02 per cent to Rs 3040.

Index heavyweights, Reliance Industries (RIL) was up 0.66 per cent to Rs 1416.20 on a volume of 58,209 shares.

Gujarat Ambuja Cements was the top loser, down 1.32 per cent to Rs 134.70, on a volume of 78,450 shares. HDFC Bank was also down 0.81 per cent to Rs 1033.45 and Hero Honda down 0.75 per cent to Rs 738.

ABB rose 2.7 per cent to Rs 3905, after the company announced 42.6 per cent growth in net profit in the December, 2006, quarter along with a 5-for-1 stock-split. The company has reported 42.6 per cent growth in net profit in the December, 2006, quarter to Rs 134.95 crore from Rs 94.61 crore in the December, 2005, quarter. Income from operations has surged 44.6 per cent to Rs 1426.31 crore (Rs 985.72 crore).

The company had a record order intake during the year (year-ended December 31, 2006), up 50 per cent, at Rs 5,623.60 crore as compared to Rs 3,764.50 crore last year. The record growth in order intake helped ABB India to increase its order backlog to Rs 3,372.30 crore, nearly 60 per cent higher than the order backlog of Rs 2,103.20 crore at the beginning of the year.

The near-term trend on the bourses will be driven by budget expectations. The focus of the market will be more on sectors, which are expected to benefit from the budget proposals.

Most Asian markets are closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Taiwan and China are closed the entire week, while Hong Kong and Singapore are shut on Monday and Tuesday. South Korea and Malaysia, and the US markets are closed on Monday, brokers added.

UNI