BSE ends on positive terrain to close at 12,982.98

Mumbai, Mar 13 (UNI) The Sensex today shot up by 80.35 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange to close in the green at 12,982.98 on sustained buying by Foreign Institutional Investor's (FII's).

The Sensex touched a high of 13,026.85 and a low of 12,817.62 in intra-day deals.

The Nifty Index also moved up by 35.95 points on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to end the day at 3,770.55 level from its previous close of 3734.60 points.

''FIIs have resumed buying after substantial sales in late February-early March 2007. As per provisional data, FIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 131 crore yesterday. They were net buyers to the tune of Rs 865 crore in the index-based futures too,'' market analysts reasoned.

''The markets would continue to be volatile till mid-April. It however, continues to witness selling pressure at higher levels. The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 4177 crore,'' brokers opined.

''However, although mutual funds are sitting on cash, thanks to collections from some new fund offers, they continue to press sales in equities,'' another expert pointed out.

The market-breadth was strong on the BSE. There were over two gainers, for every losing scrip. Against 1,737 shares advancing, 845 declined and 80 remained unchanged. Among the 30-Sensex pack, 23 advanced while the rest declined.

In another important development, latest official data released today showed that industrial output jumped 10.9 per cent in January as compared to a year earlier, powered by surging consumption across sectors.

Economists said this meant that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) can be expected to tighten monetary policy once again in order to tackle inflation.

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