BSE Sensex ends up by 355.73 points

Mumbai, Mar 28: The Sensex zoomed up by 355.73 points today on the Bombay Stock Exchange to close at 16,371.29 on sustained buying in heavyweight stocks by Foreign Institutional Investors (FII's) and domestic investors, spurred by positive cues from Asian and European markets. The Sensex has shot up by about 550 points in the last three days The market shrugged off a surge in inflation and overnight slide in US stocks. Capital goods stocks soared at the fag end of the session, followed by metal and IT stocks.

In Europe, key indices in UK, France and Germany were up by 0.05 per cent to 0.53 per cent. In Asia, the key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan were up by 0.20 per cent to 4.94 per cent. India's wholesale price index rose 6.68 per cent in the 12 months to March 15, 2008, surging from the previous week's rise of 5.92per cent, government data showed on Friday. The rate is highest since January 27, 2007, when inflation was 6.69 per cent. Frenzied buying in heavyweight stocks had lifted the Sensex by a whopping 437 points or 2.73 per cent to an intra-day high of 16,452.08 in late afternoon trade today. Earlier, despite a positive start this morning, the barometer was seen struggling to make a headway till then as buying remained somewhat stock specific.

Besides a host of mid and small cap stocks, select stocks from information technology, metal, power and capital goods sectors were the ones that stood firm even when the market was finding the going quite slippery. However, it was a scamper for stocks across the board during the final hour of trade today as participants, presumably institutional investors, threw caution to the wind and went on a buying spree. A smart recovery on the Asian bourses and a positive start in European markets aided the sentiment this afternoon.

The broader CNX S &P Nifty was up 111.75 points or 2.31 per cent at 4942.00 at the closing session from its last close.

Major BSE indices were in limelight such as BSE Metal index, which rose sharply by 800.21 points or 5.78 pc and ended firm at 15,654.19 points--the biggest gainer among the sectoral indices today.

The Capital Goods index moved up by 740.70 or 5.4 pc at 14,455.44, followed by SMALL CAP index by 375.20 points at 7901.98 points, Realty index by 333.63 points at 7984.92 points, OILS&GAS index by 306.63 points at 10,467.61 points, MID CAP index by 246.53 at 6522.79 points, IT index by 178.28 points at 3758.03 points, CD index by 186.44 points at 4025.17 PSU index by 176.32 points at 7709.75 points, Power index by 131.84 points at 3301.98 points and TECK index by 93.54 at 3148.00 points.

Banking shares, which hovered in negative territory on surge in inflation, turned green at the fag end of the trading session.

Mid-caps and small-caps surged with their barometer indices on BSE outperforming the Sensex.
Top Sensex gainers were Tata Steel, up by 10 per cent at Rs 720, followed by Infosys Technologies by 6.54 pc at Rs 1535, Wipro by 6.02 pc at Rs 456, Larsen&Toubro by 5.95 pc at Rs 3140.10, and Bharat heavy Electricals by 5.25 pc at Rs 2090.

Drug maker Alembic surged by 20 pc to Rs 55 on reports that the company plans to set up its own special economic zone, dedicated to the pharma sector.

India's leading manufacturer of inorganic chemicals by sales, Tata Chemicals soared by 6.05 pc to Rs 288.50 after the company said it has successfully completed the acquisition of US-based General Chemical Industrial Products Inc.

Varun Shipping Company surged by 6.84 pc to Rs 72.60 after the company said it has acquired India's third largest anchor handling and towing supply vessel.

Biotechnologies firm Jupiter Bioscience advanced by 9.50 pc to Rs 149.25 after the company said yesterday it would acquire a manufacturing facility of Merck Life Sciences, Switzerland, for an undisclosed sum.

Display units maker MIC Electronics advanced by 4.14 pc to Rs 700 after the company informed the stock exchange about it and its subsidiaries receiving new orders.

Construction firm Era Infra Engineering rose by 0.90 pc to Rs 597 after the company said its joint venture company with KMB has secured an order worth Rs 148.40 crore from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.

HDIL was up by 18.7 per cent to Rs 720.65 on strong volumes today.

Reliance Natural Resources, Reliance Capital, Essar Oil, Adlabs Films, India Bulls Financial Services, Orchid Chemicals and Mundra Port also gained ground on huge volumes.

Ranbaxy Laboratories, Ambuja Cements and Mahindra&Mahindra closed with modest gains. Bharti Airtel, Grasim Industries and ICICI Bank ended marginally higher than their previous closing levels.

Top Sensex losers were HDFC Bank, down by 2.77 pc at Rs 1395.25, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) by 0.96 pc at Rs 2636, followed by Tata Motors by 0.95 pc at Rs 649 and Hindustan Unilever by 0.78 pc at Rs 242.10.

Low rollovers from March 2008 series to April 2008 series were witnessed yesterday, when derivative contracts for March 2008 series expired. As per reports, the marketwide rollover of derivative positions series stood at 79 pc as compared to 84 pc in March 2008 series from February 2008. Similarly, Nifty rollover stood at 63 pc as against 75 pc in March 2008 series from February 2008, brokers added.

UNI