Sensex vaults to touch 14,500 mark in opening
Mumbai, May 23: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index (Sensex) today crossed the 14,500-mark in early trade to strike an intra-day high of 14,500.64 points as buying continued in index pivotals.
Earlier, it opened higher at 14,490.03 points, registering a gain of nearly 37 points from its previous close of 14,453.72.
''Robust set of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and mutual fund inflows are driving the markets higher in the past few sessions. FIIs have been on a buying spree as they purchased US 747 million dollars in equities in the last four sessions. They bought shares worth nearly USD 113.3 million a day before yesterday,'' dealers said.
''Domestic institutions also provided support to the markets as they pumped Rs 1,145 crore in Indian equity market in the last four sessions. They bought shares worth Rs 314.4 crore day before yesterday,'' market analysts added.
However, the Nifty Index was in negative terrain during early trade on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) at 4,274.40, a loss of around 4 points from its previous close of 4,278.10. It had opened provisionally higher at 4,279.60.
At the BSE, the total turnover was Rs 814 crore so far. The market breadth is strong as 1,001 shares have advanced, while only 678 have declined. Among the 30-Sensex pack, 17 advanced, while the rest declined, analysts observed.
Bajaj Auto and public sector unit (PSU) engineering major Bhel are the top gainers, while index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL), ONGC, REL and ITV are the top losers.
Among the Asian markets, the Nikkei average rose 0.41 per cent today as shares of Japan's three largest banks extended gains on expected higher profits this year. It advanced by 71.69 points at 17,751.74 by the close of morning trade. The broader TOPIX index was also up by 0.78 per cent at 1,745.01.
Wall Street ended an erratic session yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell 2.93 points, or 0.02 per cent, to 13,539.95.
Broader stock indexes were mixed. The Standard&Poor's 500 slipped 0.98 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 1,524.12.
The Nasdaq Composite index rose 9.23 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 2,588.02.
Crude oil prices dropped below USD 65 a barrel as investors sold contracts before their expiry yesterday, and before the US government's weekly inventory report. The June contract for light, sweet crude, which expired yesterday, lost USD 1.30 to settle at USD 64.97 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The July contract also fell USD 1.36 cents to close at USD 65.51 a barrel.
UNI