Sensex opens firm at 12,503.75 pts, up by 48 pts

Mumbai, Apr 3: The BSE Sensex today resumed positive at 12,503.75 points with a modest gain by around 48 points from it last close of 12,455.37 points on fresh speculative demand from FIIs and mutual funds, brokers said.

The barometer index opened firm, as buying resumed after a sharp 617-point plunge on Monday. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lifted its short-term lending rate by 25 basis points to 7.75 per cent, its highest in nearly four-and-half-years, after the trading ended on Friday (March 30).

The Central bank also raised the cash reserve ratio (CRR), or a proportion of cash banks have to hold with the central bank on deposit, by half a percentage point to 6.5 per cent in two stages, to siphon out Rs 15,500 crore from the banking system.

Later, the BSE Sensex was up 108.09 points, at 12,562.23. It had opened higher, at 12,503.75, and surged to a high of 12,570.58. Its low is at 12,495.96 in intra day trades.

NTPC was the top gainer, up by 3.20 per cent to Rs 152, on a volume of 77,002 shares.

Bhel (up by 2.13 per cent to Rs 2,199), L&T (up by 1.77 per cent to Rs 1552), &xD;and HDFC Bank (up by 1.76 per cent to Rs 917.50) were the other gainers.

Index heavyweight RIL was up by 1.14 per cent to Rs 1,328.50, on a volume of 1.15 lakh shares.

Bajaj Auto was the top loser, down by 0.90 per cent to Rs 2,281, on a volume of 7,097 shares.

Bharat Electronics rose by 0.4 per cent to Rs 1462, after the state-run enterprise for defence equipments reported a 22 per cent rise in profit before tax for 2006/07, as per provisional figures.

US stocks ended higher on yesterday, as a USD 26 billion buyout deal for credit card processor, First Data Corp, fueled optimism about valuations, countering worries about weak factory activity and turmoil in the housing market. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 27.95 points, or 0.23 per cent, at 12,382.30. The Standard&Poor's 500 Index was up by 3.69 points, or 0.26 per cent, at 1,424.55. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.62 points, or 0.03 per cent, at 2,422.26 on yesterday, brokers added.

UNI