Banking scrips lead rally at Bombay Stock Exchange

Mumbai, July 17: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex surged by 106.90 points by noon today to touch 15,418.12, after opening firm at 15,357.60 from it's previous close of 15,311.22 as buying continued for the fourth straight day in index pivotals, especially in banking shares as fears of interest-rate hikes receded.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty Index also recorded a gain of around 25 points at 4,537.10 after opening weaker at 4,497.10 from it's previous close of 4,512.15.

BSE data showed that the market breadth was as 1,497 shares advanced while 931 declined and 73 remained unchanged. The total turnover here amounted to Rs 2,003 crore till now. Among the Sensex pack, 23 advanced while the rest declined.

Market analysts said that bank shares rallied as fears of interest rate hikes receded.

Private sector banking major ICICI Bank advanced 1.75 per cent to Rs 987 on 2.95 lakh shares. Other early gainers included Indian Overseas Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, UTI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, Satyam computers, Ambuja Cement, ACC, Grasim, UltraTech Cement Company, Zee News and index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL).

However, state-run banking major State Bank of India (SBI) slipped 0.24 per cent to Rs 1,609.70 on profit booking. Housing finance major HDFC was the top loser from the Sensex pack. It lost 1.24 per cent to Rs 1,970 on 43,017 shares. Other laggards included HDFC Bank and Bajaj Auto.

Asian markets were mixed today. While Nikkei slipped in the red Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted was up and Shanghai Composite also edged higher.

US blue chip stocks gained yesterday, as news of a potential big telecom deal involving Verizon pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a new record close and put the index closer to 14,000.

The Dow rose 43.73 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 13,950.98. The benchmark index again set a high of 13,989.11, less than 11 points from 14,000.

Broader stock indicators, however, slipped. The Standard&Poor's 500 index slipped 2.98 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 1,549.52. The S&P also set a fresh trading high of 1,555.90. The Nasdaq Composite index fell 9.67 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 2,697.33.

UNI