Sensex settles above the 14,000 mark

Mumbai, Apr 24: The Sensex today zoomed past the psychologicalbarrier of 14,000 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), recording animpressive gain of 208.39 points to settle in the green at 14,136.72points, buoyed by the Central Bank's decision to keep the cash reserveratio (CRR), repo, reverse repo and bank rates unchanged.

After opening marginally lower at 13,893.72, it had touched a highof 14,197.32 and a low of 13,850.07 points during intra- day trade.

Among the broader markets, the 50-stock Nifty Index also gained56.70 points on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to settle at4,141.80, from it's previous close of 4,085.10 points.

It had opened at 4,085.10 and touched a high of 4,162.15 and a low of 4,057.70 points during intra-day trade.

''The market surged as investors put cash to use after the ReserveBank of India (RBI) in its monetary policy, announced earlier today,kept all policy rates and bank rates unchanged. Speculative buying, aswell as short-covering in the derivatives aided the surge,'' marketanalysts observed.

In its monetary policy, the RBI reduced interest rate ceilings onnon-resident deposits and proposed allowing companies to repay moreforeign borrowings ahead of schedule. The central bank proposedincreasing the aggregate ceiling for overseas investment by mutualfunds to USD 4 billion from USD 3 billion and increased the foreignportfolio investment limit for listed firms.

The central bank forecast that annual wholesale price inflation,which was running just above 6 per cent earlier this month, will beclose to 5 per cent at the end of March next year. The RBI forecastgross domestic product (GDP growth at 8.5 per cent in the fiscal yearending March 2008, lower than the 9.2 per cent expected for 2006-07.

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said the central bank'smonetary policy would help moderate inflation without hurting growth.He said controlling inflation below 5 per cent was an ''aggressivetask.'' The apex bank Governor Dr Y V Reddy also took a number ofinitiatives toward capital account convertibility and encouraginghedging of price risk on global commodity exchanges. He put in placemeasures to develop the corporate bond market, futures contract,establishment of credit information companies and a number of steps tohelp distressed farmers and micro-finance.

The Sensex's all-time peak is of 14,723.88 points, which it hadbeen reached on Feb 9 this year, while its all-time closing high is14,652.09, a feat it had achieved on Feb 8 this year, market punditspointed out.

Reliance Industries (RIL) and Bharti Airtel struck all-time highs.

But IT shares slipped with the Rupee rising to a fresh nine-yearhigh against the dollar, soon after the Central Bank opted to holdshort-term rates steady.

PSU banks spurted on the RBI's decision to hold rates steady.

State Bank of India (SBI) gained 7 per cent to Rs 113.5, IndianBank jumped 11 per cent to Rs 106.25, Canara Bank rose 10.6 per cent toRs 223.75, Bank of India gained 8 per cent to Rs 198.90, Oriental Bankof Commerce (OBC) rose 7.6 per cent to Rs 207, Punjab National Bank(PNB) gained nearly 7 per cent to Rs 506 and Bank of Baroda advanced 6per cent to Rs 239.

Among private sector banks, ICICI Bank rose 3 per cent to Rs 947, and HDFC Bank gained 2.4 per cent to Rs 1011.90.

Housing finance firms advanced after the central bank lowered arisk weightage on housing loans up to 20 lakh to 50 per cent from 75per cent.

RBI said the reduction was a temporary measure. HDFC gained 2.6 per cent to Rs 1714.90.

Car major Maruti Udyog gained by 4.3 per cent to Rs 801. Tata Motorsgained 3.9 per cent to Rs 746, Mahindra&Mahindra rose by 1.7 percent to Rs 744, and Bajaj Auto advanced 1.6 per cent to Rs 2449.

Bharti Airtel gained 4 per cent to Rs 875. It struck a high of Rs 882, which is a lifetime high for the scrip.

Reliance Industries rose nearly 2 per cent to Rs 1583. The stockstruck a high of Rs 1588, which is also a record high for the scrip.

Oil exploration major, ONGC, gained 1.7 per cent to Rs 949.65, tracking firm global crude oil prices.

Information Technology (IT) shares slipped due to worries over arising rupee against the US dollar. Wipro lost nearly 2 per cent to Rs556, TCS shed 1.2 per cent to Rs 1230, Satyam Computer shed 0.8 percent to Rs 476.50 and Infosys shed 0.4 per cent to Rs 2,058. A strongerrupee directly impacts the revenue and profits of IT firms as theyderive a lion's share of revenue from exports.

The Indian Rupee soared more than 1 per cent against the dollartoday to a fresh nine-year high, with the market undeterred by centralbank steps to try and ease upward pressure on the currency.

The Rupee climbed as far as 41.15 per dollar, its highest level since May 1998.

Tata Steel was up nearly 4 per cent to Rs 578.80. The company, last week, announced a 1:5 rights issue at Rs 300 per share.

Gujarat Ambuja Cements gained nearly 4 per cent to Rs 119.40 and ACC rose 2.4 per cent to Rs 816.

UNI