Sensex scales 15,000-mark in first session

Mumbai, July 12: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex soared 158.13 points in the first session and cross the 15,000 mark to touch 15,068.75 on account of strong buying interest at higher levels, with shares from the real-estate pack rallying on renewed buying interest.

The Sensex earlier opened higher at 14963.53 tracking upbeat global markets.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty Index was trading with a gain of 43.50 points at 4430.65 after opening higher at 4388.05 from it's previous close of 4387.15.

Market analysts said that the the market breadth was strong on the BSE with three gainers for every loser. As many as 1,830 shares advanced while 581 declined, and 56 remained unchanged.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.36 per cent at 6795.47 after striking an all-time high of 6803.35, while the BSE Small-Cap index moved up 1.71 per cent at 8212.68.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 2,049 crore. Among the Sensex stocks, 25 gained, while only five declined.

Real-estate stocks rallied on renewed buying interest on hopes that interest rates will peak. The BSE Realty index surged today and struck an all-time high of 7867.38. It was trading 2.96 per cent higher at 7852.63 and was the best performer among the sectoral indices on BSE. A heavyweight in this index, Unitech, rose 2.73 per cent to Rs 557, and another heavyweight DLF surged 3.94 per cent to Rs 613.40. Indiabulls Real Estate rose 3.31 per cent to Rs 518 and Mahindra Gesco Developers was up 2.16 per cent to Rs 570.25.

Other early gainers included Hindalco Industries, Reliance Energy (REL), Bhel, Hindustan Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive India. The losers were TCS, Tata Motors, ACC (down 0.21% to Rs 1067.15).

''The market will be closely watching the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for May 2007, which will be released today.

IIP hit an eleven-year high of 13.6 per cent in April this year against 9.9 per cent in April last year. The surge in IIP was due to growth in the manufacturing sector,'' analysts said.

Most of the Asian indices advanced today. While the Japanese Nikkei lost 0.35 per cent at 17961.75, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.40 per cent at 22923.32, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted was up 0.98 per cent at 9381.85, Singapore's Straits Times edged higher by 1.02 per cent at 3631.57 and South Korea's Seoul Composite advanced 1.06 per cent at 1909.75. China^TMs Shanghai Composite also rose 0.27 per cent to 3876.23.

Bank of Japan (BoJ) left its key policy rate unchanged at 0.50 per cent for the fifth month today, a widely expected move that sets the scene for a possible rate hike next month, experts said.

Wall Street bounced back yesterday, boosted by takeover activity ahead of second-quarter earnings reports. The Dow Jones advanced 76.17 points, or 0.56 per cent, to 13577.87.

Broader indexes also staged a rebound. The Standard&Poor's 500 index rose 8.64 points, or 0.57 per cent, to 1518.76, while the Nasdaq Composite index moved higher by 12.63 points, or 0.48 per cent, to 2651.79.

Oil prices were higher today as the market continued to fret over US gasoline (petrol) reserves. New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for August 2007 delivery, was eight cents higher at USD 72.64 a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for August 2007 delivery rose 10 cents to USD 75.54, dealers added.

UNI