Sensex zooms to settle above 15,550 level

Mumbai, July 19: After piercing an all-time high of 15,593.31 today, the Sensex settled firmly in the green at 15,550.13 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) registering a gain of a whopping 248.96 points on account of strong interest in index pivotals and positive cues from global indices.

The S&P CNX Nifty Index also struck an all time intra-day high of 4,573.00 and settled with an handsome gain of around 63 points on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) at 4,562.10 from its previous close of 4,499.55, after opening marginally higher at 4,500.35.

''Index pivotals were in strong demand, with Reliance Industries, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and Grasim in the forefront. Today's rally was broad based with buying across various sectors and market capitalisation. Auto, capital goods, information technology (IT), oil&gas, logged smart gains. However, real estate stocks cooled off on profit booking. Positive cues from the global markets boosted the sentiment further,'' market pundits noted.

BSE data revealed that their total turnover surged in last hour of trade to Rs 5,699 crore. The market breadth was strong with 1,536 shares advancing and 1,157 declining, while 70 remained unchanged.

Among the 30-scrip Sensex pack, 26 advanced while only 4 of them declined.

''Shares from auto pack dominated the list of gainers, on easing worries of interest rate hike. Auto companies derive 50-75 per cent of their sales from borrowed funds. Cement stocks advanced riding on the infrastructure boom. Telecom pivotals advanced on renewed buying. IT stocks advanced on momentum buying in anticipation of global merger&acquisition (M&A) activity. Besides, the Indian Rupee slipped today as rising oil prices spurred oil companies to buy dollars, though it is expected that capital flows into the fast-growing economy will later bolster the local unit. In early trade, the Rupee was at 40.43/44 per US dollar, easing from its previous close of 40.4150/4250, and drifting further from a nine-year peak of 40.28, that it had hit in late May,'' market participants noted.

Today's leaders included Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Reliance Industries (RIL), Grasim, JK Lakshmi Cement, UltraTech Cement Company, Larsen&Toubro, Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel, Infosys Technologies, Wipro, TCS, Satyam Computers and Zee Entertainment Enterprises.

The list of laggards was dominated by Reliance Energy, Cipla, Hindustan Unilever and Tata Steel.

India's top auto maker in terms of sales, Tata Motors jumped 6.31 per cent to Rs 790 on reports that it is evaluating a bid to buy luxury British car brands Jaguar and Land Rover from struggling US car maker Ford. A successful bid for Jaguar and Land Rover, which have been underperforming ever since Ford acquired them seven years ago, may cost over Rs 6,000 crore. It was the top gainer from Sensex pack, with 3.64 lakh shares changing hands on the counter.

India's second largest two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto surged 5.06 per cent to Rs 2,398 after a domestic brokerage initiated as 'outperformer' rating with target price of Rs 2,725.

India's largest private sector company Reliance Industries (RIL) extended gains to strike a fresh an all-time of Rs 1,925. The index heavyweight galloped 4.34 per cent to Rs 1,899, on 11.04 lakh shares. The Bombay High Court yesterday refused to stay an interim order barring Reliance Industries (RIL) from selling gas from its KG basin field to any other firm except Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) and state-run NTPC.

Cement manufacturer, ACC the second largest cement company according to market captialisation, saw high volatility today on the eve of its results. The stock slipped sharply to a low of Rs 1119, after the company said its net profit fell 13.5 per cent to Rs 351 crore in Q1 June 2007 over it's results during the corresponding period last year. However, it rallied sharply from the low to strike a high of Rs 1,160 in late trade. It settled with a 2.29 per cent gain at Rs 1159.

UNI