Market soared up to three-and-half month high

Mumbai, May 31: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex today surged past the 14,550 level in the opening session, a three and half month high, registering a gain of an impressive 147.01 points to reach 14,573.81, after opening higher at 14, 451.31, buoyed by strong buying momentum and tracking strong global markets.

Among the broader markets, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty Index also rose by around 28 points to reach 4,277.20 points from it's previous close of 4,249.65 after opening marginally higher at 4,250.25.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 613 crore and the market breadth was strong here as 1,196 shares advanced while 381 declined.

Among the Sensex pack, 28 advanced while only 2 of them slipped, traders said.

''The market is expected to stay highly volatile today, as derivative contracts for the May 2007 series expires today. As per market data, the marketwide rollover stands at 63 per cent, while the Nifty rollover is 59 per cent,'' market analysts opined.

Experts revealed that the key economic data due today is India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth in January-March 2007 quarter, which analysts expect to be in the region of 9 per cent to 10 per cent, and added that Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers to the tune of approximately Rs 598.51 crore yesterday, when Sensex had lost 97 points due to weakness in Asian and European markets though domestic institutions were net buyers to the tune of Rs 562 crore.

The major gainers today included HDFC bank L&T, Reliance Communications, State Bank of India and index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL).

The prominent losers were Hero Honda and Tata Power.

Asian benchmarks were broadly trading with gains. Japans's Nikkei 225 index surged 1.10 per cent or 193.15 points at 17,781.41 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index advanced 0.96 per cent or 194.48 points at 20, 488.24. Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.75 per cent or 60.98 points at 8,208.32, South Korea's Seoul Composite was up 1.66 per cent or 27.61 points at 1,690.33. However, Singapore's Straits Times lost 0.45 per cent or 15.95 points at 3,511.13.

Cues from the US markets were also encouraging with the Wall Street rising and sending the Standard&Poor's 500 index to its first record close in more than seven years, as investors grew more confident that the Federal Reserve might cut interest rates in the second half of 2007. The Dow Jones industrials also reached a new closing high.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 111.74 points or 0.83 per cent to 13,633.08, and also reached a new all time high of high of 13,636.09. The S&P 500, surpassed the record of 1,527.46, set 24 March 2000, at the peak of the dot-com boom, closing at 1, 530.23, up 12.12 points, or 0.80 per cent. The Nasdaq Composite index rose 20.53 points, or 0.80 per cent, at 2,592.59.

Oil prices slumped today ahead of the release of a US government report expected to show US crude and gasoline supplies rose last week. Light, sweet crude for July 2007 delivery dropped 13 cents to USD 63.36 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, mid-morning in Singapore. The contract yesterday rose 34 cents to settle at USD 63.49 a barrel.

July Brent crude lost 4 cents to USD 67.80 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London, after tumbling 50 cents overnight to settle at USD 67.84 a barrel.

UNI