Sensex settles marginally higher at 15,680

Mumbai, July 20: After scaling an all-time intra-day high at 15,683.03 today, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex finally settled marginally higher at 15,565.55, registering a modest gain of just 15.42 points, as profit-booking emerged during the last hour of day's session.

''The market, which was trading strong till late afternoon trade, witnessed a trend reversal and slipped into the red during the last one hour of trade on profit-booking. It had opened firm at 15,625.63 as strong buying interest continued following a 249-point rally yesterday. Strong Asian and US markets also boosted sentiment in early trade today. Besides, latest data showed that inflation remained unchanged for the week. However, there is a tendency among investors to make a killing through profit-booking after every major rally,'' market analysts explained.

Among the broader markets, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty Index crossed the 4,600 mark to strike an all time high of 4600.80 during intra-day, but finally settled with a modest gain of around 4 points at 4,566.05, from it's previous close of 4,563.75 after opening slightly higher at 4,563.75.

''The market witnessed high volatility today, and it is expected to stay choppy in the near term ahead of expiry of this month's derivatives contracts on Thursday. The total open interest in NSE's futures and options (F&O) segment increased to an all time record of Rs 94,041.37 crore, from Rs 89,173.11 crore on previous day,'' market participants noted.

BSE data showed that the market breadth was negative with 1,729 shares declining and only 964 advancing, while 70 remained unchanged. The total turnover here amounted to Rs 5,761 crore. Among the 30-scrip Sensex pack, 17 advanced while the rest declined.

''The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cleared the operational hurdles for foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to pledge foreign sovereign securities like US treasury bills for taking positions in futures and options. Till now, FIIs were mandatorily required to give cash as margin for investing in derivatives. From now on, foreign portfolio managers can dip into their idle holdings of bonds issued by overseas governments to give margins against F&O trades in Indian stock exchanges,'' experts pointed out.

''Cement stocks saw unwinding after the recent rally, while steel stocks gained on fresh buying in hopes on firm global metal prices,'' market players said.

Meanwhile, official data released today showed that India's wholesale price index remained unchanged from the previous week's level of 4.27 per cent in the 12 months to July 7, despite a fall in some food prices. The annual inflation rate was 4.83 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year, economists said.

The leaders include Larsen and Toubro, Tata Steel, SAIL, JSW Steel, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications (RCom), Mahindra&Mahindra and Dr Reddy's.

The prominent laggards were ACC, Ambuja Cement, India Cements and Reliance Industries (RIL).

India's largest engineering and construction firm Larsen and Toubro surged 4.20 per cent to Rs 2476 on the launch of an IT special economic zone (SEZ), a first of its kind integrated project. The project will come up at Vallancheri in Tamil Nadu and will have a total built up area of 2.70 million squre feet (sq ft), that would be completed in two phases. Construction of the first phase is expected to begin in August-end this year.

Leading private sector steel major Tata Steel vaulted 4.93 per cent to Rs 715.90 on 18.11 lakh shares. It was the top gainer from the Sensex pack.

India's largest cellular services provider Bharti Airtel galloped by 2.86 per cent to Rs 921.50, after hitting an all time high of Rs 943. Bharti Enterprises, the parent of Bharti Airtel yesterday said that one of its group companies had bought a 4.99 per cent in the telecom firm from Vodafone. The purchase took Bharti's voting interest in Bharti Airtel to more than 50 per cent.

India's second-largest mobile services firm Reliance Communications (RCom) rose 1.29 per cent to Rs 586.80. The company has sold a 5 per cent stake in its telecom tower business, valued at Rs 27,000 crore, Chairman Anil Ambani said today adding that they have placed the 5 per cent stake with a handful of leading investors in the United States, Europe and Asia, for Rs 1,400 crore. The scrip also struck an all time high of Rs 592. RCom is also evaluating a possible initial public offering (IPO) or strategic equity placements for the tower business, Ambani said.

However, India's largest private sector company Reliance Industries (RIL) slipped 0.50 per cent to Rs 1,887. The Bombay High Court had refused to stay an interim order barring RIL from selling gas from its KG basin field to any other firm except Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources limited (RNRL) and state-run NTPC.

All the Asian indices were trading higher, boosted by a record close on Wall Street. Nikkei gained 0.23 per cent at 18,157.93. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.20 per cent at 23,291.90, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted was up 1.19 per cent at 9,585.90, Singapore's Straits Times advanced 1.30 per cent at 3,651.38 and South Korea's Seoul Composite surged 2.36 per cent at 1,983.54 and China's Shanghai Composite jumped 3.73 per cent to 4,058.83.

Most of the European indices were trading higher.

Wall Street edged higher yesterday, taking the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) to its first close above 14,000 as investors kept jitters about the economy at bay and focused on a string of upbeat earnings reports. The Standard &Poor's 500 index also had a record close.

The Dow advanced 82.19 points, or 0.59 per cent, to 14,000.41.

Broader stock indicators also gained yesterday. The S&P 500 index gained 6.91 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 1,553.08. The technology focused Nasdaq Composite index rose 20.55 points, or 0.76 per cent, to 2,720.04, following upbeat tech earnings.

UNI