Stock markets end with marginal gains

Mumbai, Mar 12: The Sensex today registered a marginal gain of 17.64 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange to close at 12,902.63 with the Foreign Institutional Investors (FII's) resuming buying and the Asian markets ending significantly higher.

''The markets started on a tame note but picked up steam during intra-day when the Sensex crossed the psychological barrier of 13,000 to reach the day's high at 13,056.86 points. However, it pared a sizable part of the gains during the closing hour after recording the day's low of 12,844.99 points,'' a market analyst observed.

The market-breadth was strong today. Against 1,543 shares rising on BSE, 1,032 declined. Just 52 shares were unchanged. Gainers outpaced losers by a ratio of 1.49:1. The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 3395 crore.

''FIIs have resumed buying since the past three days after selling heavily since late-February 2007. But, Mutual funds are sitting on cash, thanks to collections from some of the recent new fund offers, and may step up purchases at declines,'' brokers said.

Among the broader markets, the Nifty Index too made a modest gain of 16.60 points on the NSE to close at 3734.60 from its previous close of 3718.00 points.

The share markets in the Asia-Pacific continued their surge today, after the recent slide as US jobs data reassured investors about the health of the world's biggest economy.

Besides, key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and Japan were up between 0.5 - 1.6 per cent.

The US economy added 97,000 jobs in February, slightly below expectations, but jobs growth for previous months was revised up and the unemployment rate fell.

Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 15.62 points, or 0.13 per cent to settle at 12,276.32. The Nasdaq Composite Index ended nearly unchanged at 2,387.55. At the BSE, cement shares retreated for the second day in a row after Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath last week said that cement makers had agreed not to raise prices for one year.

Gujarat Ambuja Cements dropped 5 per cent to Rs 104.35, ACC lost 4 per cent to Rs 747 and Grasim shed 2.6 per cent to Rs 2015.

Cigarette major ITC dropped nearly 4 per cent to Rs 148.50. The stock declined on a heavy volume of 35.7 lakh shares on BSE.

Reliance Industries ended flat at Rs 1318. The stock came off the session's high of Rs 1334.50. As per reports, the company had made two more gas discoveries off the country's east coast in gas-rich KG DG block in the Krishna-Godavari basin, and in NEC 25 block of the Mahanadi basin.

Meanwhile, IPCL dropped 1.6 per cent to Rs 264.10. Reliance Industries (RIL) set a ratio of one share of RIL for every five held in IPCL, to give shape to the merger of IPCL with RIL.

Engineering&construction major L&T gained nearly 3 per cent to Rs 1525. The company is seen benefiting from the government's thrust on infrastructure sector in the Union Budget 2007-08.

Cellular Services major Bharti Airtel gained 2.6 per cent to Rs 770. Idea Cellular rose nearly 2 per cent to Rs 87.20.

Software bellwether Infosys shed 0.4 per cent to Rs 2114, whereas IT major TCS rose 2.3 per cent to Rs 1240. Wipro had gained 1.8 per cent to Rs 575.

ICICI Bank was up 2 per cent to Rs 877. The Bank has no plans for a stock-split, CEO KV Kamath today clarified in response to market speculation.

Bhel rose 0.2 per cent to Rs 2101.60 following its statement today that its board had proposed altering its articles of association for a bonus issue.

Trading on BSE and NSE was extended by 45 minutes till 1615 hours due to sun outage. This schedule is applicable till 19 March, an official statement said.

UNI