Sensex up by 16.99pts on populist Railway Budget

Mumbai, Feb 26: After the downtrend for the last four sessions, the Sensex today just managed to recover by a modest 16.99 points and closed at 13,649.52 on the Bombay Stock Exchange due to a positive sentiment in the market following the populist Railway Budget.

The bourses managed a remarkable bounceback after a steep fall during the mid afternoon. The market-breadth had also evened out by the end of trading.

Cement, banking, auto and steel shares led the Sensex's rebound after a sharp intra-day fall. Index heavyweight, Reliance Industries (RIL), also recovered.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav had earlier announced a 5 per cent cut in freight transportation rates for diesel-petrol, and a 6 per cent reduction for all minerals, including iron ore and limestone. The lowering of freight rates is part of the rationalisation of tariffs announced by the minister even as he refrained from announcing any across the board increase in freight rates.

Mr Yadav also introduced a commodity-based tariff policy, which will take effect from 1 April 2007, on an experimental basis, for major commodities to provide a stronger base to the Railways' competitive capabilities.

The 30 scrips of sensitive index of BSE resumed firm at 13,684.95 points. Later it recorded the day's high at 13,723.40 points and a low at 13,383.88 points.

The BSE METAL and BANKEX indices also shot up by 201.61 and 42.87 points and closed high at 9000.54 points for METAL index and for BANKEX index at 6802.45 points, followed by PSU index by 35.51 and quoted at 5911.85 points and FMCG index by 25.98 points and closed at 1,812.26 points.

Meanwhile, the S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE also gained modestly by 4.05 points and closed high at 3,942.00 points.

Key benchmark indices in London, Germany and France were up between 0.4 per cent and 0.8 per cent. Asian markets were mixed. Key benchmark indices in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were up between 0.01 and 1.1 per cent, whereas key indices in Hong Kong and Singapore were down between 0.08 and 0.98 per cent.

US crude rose for the fourth day, up 19 cents to USD 61.33 a barrel on Monday, and neared a fresh 2007 high, as rising tensions over Iran's nuclear programme added to concerns over an unexpectedly deep drop in US fuel stocks and supply disruptions.

UNI