BSE sensex spurts 206 points

Mumbai, Aug 24: The Sensex today surged by a handsome 206.89 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to settle in the green at 14424.87, as fears of immediate mid-term polls eased after the CPM made it clear that it does not want to pull the government down over the Indo-US nuke deal.

''After opening higher at 14237.26, the barometer index galloped by as much as 292 points in the second half of the trading session to reach the day's high at 14424.87, after the CPM showed signs of softening its belligerance,'' market participants noted.

Among the broader markets, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty also spurted by around 76 points to settle higher at 4190.15 from its previous close of 4114.95, after opening weaker at 4113.05 and moving between 4201.45 and 4110.05 during the day's session.

''The highlight of today's rally is that domestic bourses have ignored weak global cues. Most of the Asian and European indices were trading lower today, while US markets settled flat in it's last trading session. It may be recalled here that in the recent past, local bourses have been closely tracking world markets,'' market pundits pointed out.

BSE data showed that the market breadth was positive as 1,581 shares advanced as compared to 1,112 that declined, while 62 remained unchanged. The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 3,608 crore. Among the 30-scrip Sensex pack, 27 advanced while only three slipped.

All the sectoral indices on BSE settled higher. The BSE Metal index, BSE PSU index, BSE Auto index, BSE Capital Goods index and BSE Auto index, all outperformed broad markets, to rise over 2 per cent each.

Among Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.20 per cent at 22921.89, Japan's Nikkei tanked 0.41 per cent at 16248.97, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted was down 0.49 per cent at 8690.09, Singapore's Straits Times declined 0.04 per cent at 3369.45 and South Korea's Seoul Composite sank 0.47 per cent at 1791.33.

However, China's Shanghai Composite was up 1.49 per cent at 5107.66.

Among European indices, UK's FTSE 100 slipped 0.19 per cent to 6185.10, CAC 40 tanked 0.26 per cent to 5,509 and DAX was down 0.58 per cent to 7468.24.

The US market ended flat in the last trading session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed almost unchanged at 13235.88, marginally down by 0.25 points. Tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 11.1 points to close at 2541.7 and the S&P 500 lost 1.57 points to end at 1462.50.

The uptrend on the bourses was fuelled by the FII investment for last two days, as Foreign institutional investors net purchases stood at Rs 274.64 crore yesterday. It was followed by a net investment by domestic institutions of Rs 530.72 crore.

India's wholesale price index rose 4.10 per cent till the week ended August 11, slightly up from the previous week's 4.05 per cent, due to higher food and manufactured product prices, official data showed today.

India's top truck maker Tata Motors jumped 6.11 per cent to Rs 660.15 on 4.08 lakh shares. It was the top gainer from the Sensex pack. Yesterday, it had launched two light commercial vehicles, Magic and Winger, in the metropolis. Magic and Winger are being produced in the Pune facility of the company.

Reliance Energy gained 4 per cent to Rs 734, and ACC rose 3.75 per cent to Rs 1008.90 to become the other gainers from the Sensex pack.

India's leading power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals gained 5.32 per cent at Rs 1,750. It had bagged contracts worth Rs 6,500 crore for setting up power project units on August 22 from the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC).

SBI, the country's largest bank by net profit, advanced 3.81 per cent to Rs 1,469 after Parliament yesterday passed a bill to replace an ordinance enabling transfer of the Reserve Bank of India's stake in SBI to the Union government. The SBI (Amendment) Bill, 2007 was approved by the Rajya Sabha by a voice vote yesterday, while it got the Lok Sabha's clearance earlier on Tuesday.

India's biggest private sector firm by market capitalisation and oil refiner, Reliance Industries (RIL), rose 2 per cent to Rs 1778 on 5.62 lakh shares. The Empowered Group of Ministers, formed to look into pricing and utilisation of natural gas produced from new fields like the KG-D6 of RIL, is likely to hold its first meeting on Monday.

RIL had proposed an increase in gas price from USD 4.33 per million British Thermal Unit to USD 4.58, which was opposed by key consuming sectors like fertiliser and power.

HDFC Bank tanked 0.25 per cent to Rs 1097, Dr Reddy's was down 0.29 per cent to Rs 629 and Bajaj Auto sank 0.50 per cent to Rs 2217.

They were the other losers from the Sensex pack.

Oil prices steadied below USD 70 per barrel today, after Mexico's state oil firm said Gulf oil rigs suffered only minor damage from powerful Hurricane Dean. US light crude for October delivery dipped 5 cents at USD 69.78 a barrel.

UNI