BSE Sensex opens higher at 14,449 pts

Mumbai, Feb 20: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex today opened high at 14,449.23 points, with a modest gain of 47 points from its previous close of 14,402.90 points, on fresh speculative demand from Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and mutual funds, brokers said.

The market opened firm amid initial volatility. Later, the Sensex was up 29 points at 14,431 during the mid-morning session. It had risen as many as 63.86 points to 14,466.76 soon after commencement of trading, but shortly slipped into the red, to 14,390.87. At this level, the benchmark Sensex had lost 12.03 points for the day.

The S&P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) resumed flat at 4,164.85 points and went up to 4,175.45 in intra-day trades. Later, it fell to 4,150.80 points. However, the current index eased by nine points and was quoted at 4,155.65 points from its last close of 4,164.55 points.

State Bank of India (SBI) gained one per cent to Rs 1,143, after the state-run bank said it would raise its benchmark prime lending rate by 75 basis points to 12.25 per cent from today.

Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 0.4 per cent to Rs 1,424.50 following reports that the global oil major Chevron Corporation may assist Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) in developing an exploration block in the fertile Krishna Godavari (KG) basin.

Tata Steel hiked 1.7 per cent to Rs 451.55, extending Monday's upmove. Global steel shares are in demand on expectations of a further consolidation within the steel sector.

Tata Tea rose one per cent to Rs 680, after the company said on Monday it would offload 80 per cent stake in its North India Plantation Operations (NIPO) to a group of investors and employees.

Amalgamated Plantations, the company to which the Tatas will transfer its NIPO business, covers Tata Tea's 20 plantations in Assam and five in Dooars (West Bengal), spread over 24,000 hectares.

Japan's Nikkei 225 average has recovered from an early fall. It was down just 0.05 per cent. Many other Asian markets were closed today for the Lunar New Year. Markets in China and Taiwan are shut for the entire week. The markets in the United States were closed on Monday, brokers added.

UNI