Sensex continues to be on upswing, at 14,880 mark

Mumbai, July 4: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex continuedto be on the upswing, rising today by 73.73 points to settle in thegreen at 14,880.24, as firm global markets, steady progress of themonsoons and a taming inflation lifted sentiments.

After opening the session firmly higher at 14,868.14 from itsprevious close of 14,806.51, it reached an intra-day high of 14,906.93and a low of 14,790.75.

However, among the broader markets, the National Stock Exchange(NSE) Nifty Index gained a sparse 1.78 points to close at 4,359.30 fromits previous close of 4,357.55, after opening marginally higher at4,358.25 and moving between 4,386.45 and 4,342.00.

''Shares from metal, cement, sugar saw buying while information technology (IT) pivotals were offloaded,'' traders revealed.

The market breadth, which was strong in the opening session on theBSE, turned negative by mid-morning trade. 1,445 shares declined ascompared to only 1,219 that advanced, while 68 remained unchanged.Among the Sensex pack, 18 advanced while the rest declined.

Market analysts pointed out that notwithstanding the ongoingmonsoon season, generally considered as a slack season for cementcompanies, failed to dampen monthly sales of cement companies. ACC'scement dispatches stood at 1.70 million tonnes last month, up 9.67 percent from 1.55 million tonnes during the corresponding period lastyear. It produced 1.70 million tonnes of cement compared to 1.53 tonneslast year, a rise of 11 per cent, the company disclosed.

The Rupee hovered near one-month high at 40.55/56 against the US currency in late morning deals today.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers ofapproximately Rs 445-crore equities yesterday, when the Sensex hadsurged 142 points. Meanwhile, Domestic institutional investors (DII)were net sellers of nearly Rs 171-crore equities.

Today's winners included ACC, Ambuja Cements, Grasim, UltraTechCement Company, India Cements, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, SAIL, JSW Steel,Reliance Industries (RIL), Tata Motors, Maruti Udyog and Bajaj Auto.

The prominent laggards included ONGC, Wipro, Infosys and TCS.

Asian stock markets rose today, with South Korea's benchmark KOSPIindex hitting a fresh record high after stocks such as Hyundai Motorrose, while broader sentiment was lifted by fresh US takeover talk.

Hang Seng rose by 0.17 per cent to 22,188.52, Nikkei 225 was up0.10 per cent to 18,168.79, Seoul Composite gained 1.70 per cent to1,836.28 and Taiwan Weighted advanced by 0.87 per cent to 9,074.90.

However, China's Shanghai Composite was down 2.14 per cent to 3,816.65.

All the European indices opened higher, except Austria's ATX which was down by 0.12 per cent.

On Wall Street, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average edgedup by 0.3 per cent, while the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index added0.5 per cent. Deal news again contributed to the gains, with news of atakeover of fast-food chain Wendy's International Inc.

Oil prices struck a 10-month high above USD 73 a barrel yesterdayon strong summer driving demand in the US. London Brent crude, seen asthe best price gauge of the global oil market, settled up 30 cents toUSD 72.93 a barrel after rising to USD 73.10 earlier, the highest since25 August 2006, dealers added.

UNI