Sensex moves past 14,500 as IT pivotals harden

Mumbai, June 26: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex today advanced by 44.20 points to breach the psychological barrier of 14,500 to touch 14,531.92 during early trade, on account of strong buying interest in information technology (IT) pivotals.

It had earlier opened lacklustre at 14,478.75 from its previous close of 14,487.72 due to weak global cues.

The Nifty Index also spurted by 19.30 points on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to embark on positive terrain at 4,278.70, after opening unchanged from it's previous close of 4,259.40 ''The market which was lacklustre in opening trade, firmed up in mid-morning trade due to buying in IT scrips. IT stocks have made handsome gains on renewed buying. The BSE IT index was up by 0.83 per cent to 4,852.37,'' market analysts observed.

The Indian rupee started at its lowest level in more than two weeks today, as investors anticipated an abatement in capital inflows on shrinking global risk appetite and a step up in dollar purchases by oil refiners. In early trade, the rupee was at 41.01/02 per US dollar, slipping from it's yesterday's 40.875/885.

The total turnover on the BSE amounted to Rs 1,367 crore. The market breadth was strong here with over 2 gainers for every loser.

1,446 shares advanced and 750 declined, while 81 remained unchanged.

The early gainers today were Satyam Computers, TCS, Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Grasim, Tata Steel, ITC, Reliance Industries (RIL), L&T, ONGC, 3i Infotech and Britannia Industries The early losers are HDFC and ICICI Bank.

Asian markets saw high volatility in opening session today and were trading in the red. Japan's Nikkei 225 index was down 10 points or 0.06 per cent at 18,077.48. Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted down 0.92 per cent at 8,857.35, Singapore's Straits Times slipped by 0.95 per cent at 3,546.49, Hang Seng was down 0.08 per cent at 21,804.90), South Korea's Seoul Composite slipped 0.47 per cent at 1,749.55.

China's Shanghai Composite was down by 1.26 per cent to 3,891.23.

US markets gave up a big advance and turned lower yesterday, as investors suffered a renewed case of the jitters ahead of the Federal Reserve's meeting on interest rates later this week. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 8.21 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 13,352.05, after rising more than 100 points earlier in the day.

Broader indices also declined. The Standard&Poor's 500 index fell 4.82 points, or 0.32 per cent, to 1,497.74, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 11.88 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 2,577.08.

UNI