Sensex opens firm at 17,901.94 points

Mumbai, Oct 8: The Bombay Stock Exchange's (BSE) sensitive index today opened high at 17,901.94 points with a massive gain of around 128 points from it last close on fresh heavy speculative demand from FIIs, brokers said.

The market opened on a firm note taking cue from the firm global markets. The Sensex hit an all-time high at the onset of the trading session. It later slipped into the red as political concerns took centrestage. Most of the sectoral indices were in the red. Market breadth was negative. Reliance Industries extended gains. Asian markets opened on a positive note.

Later, the BSE 30-share Sensex was down 229.09 points to 17,544.27 points. It opened with an upward gap of 128.58 points at 17,901.94 and soon surged to all-time high of 17,982.59. Sensex hit a low of 17,618.778 so far during the day.

The S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE was down 33.5 points to 5,152.35 from it last close. Before it resumed firm at 5186.25 points, it had hit a high of 5,249.30 in early trade. Meanwhile, it came down to 5071.25 points during the intra day trade.

Political situation turned bleak again as Congress President Sonia Gandhi signaled her party's preparedness to face elections and hit out at the Left for opposing the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal on last Sunday.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 88.35 points, or 1.18 per cent, to 7,397.16. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 50.20 points, or 0.55 per cent, to 9,051.67.

HDFC Bank (up 1.9 per cent to Rs 1,427) is the top gainer from Sensex pack. Bharat Heavy Electricals (up 1.47 per cent to Rs 2,185.10), HDFC (up 1.42 per cent to Rs 2,490), Bharti Airtel (up 1 per cent to Rs 1,003) and Satyam Computer Services (up 0.85 per cent to Rs 448.25) were the major gainers among the Sensex pack.

NTPC (down 2.77 per cent to Rs 208.50) was the top loser from Sensex pack. Cipla (down 2.09 per cent to Rs 185), ICICI Bank (down 1.86 per cent to Rs 1,017.35), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (down 1.5 per cent to Rs 643.30) and Tata Steel (down 1.55 per cent to Rs 820) were the other major losers from the Sensex pack.

India's largest private company in terms of market capitalisation and oil refiner, Reliance Industries rose 0.66 per cent to Rs 2,500.25.

Jaiprakash Associates rose 3.48 per cent to Rs 1,123.90 after it said its board would meet on October 15 to consider a stock split.

Telecom firm, Videsh Sanchar Nigam rose 2.37 per cent to Rs 462.15 after a top official of the firm said it aimed to boost revenues by 15 per cent annually.

Kotak Mahindra Bank rose 1.62 per cent to Rs 975 on reports that the Bank is set to raise USD 400 million through a qualified institutional offering this week and it is in talks with a string of investors for the proposed placement.

Asian markets, which opened before the Indian markets, were trading on a positive note today. Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (up 1.07 per cent to 9,720.23), Hong Kong's Hang Seng (up 1.87 per cent to 28,347.23), Singapore's Straits Times (up 1.27 per cent to 3,871.14) edged higher.

Japan's Nikkei (down 0.16 per cent at 17,065.04) edged lower, brokers added.

UNI