Sensex opens firm at 17,560.15 points

Mumbai, May 2: The benchmark Sensitive index of BSE today resumed on a positive note at 17,560.15 points, with a massive gain of 272.84 points from its last close of 17,287.31 points, on fresh heavy speculative demands from FIIs and local operators.

Brokers said, ''The key benchmark indices opened strong on positive cues from global equities. The market is now eyeing the weekly inflation data, which is slated to hit the market this noon. IT and banking stocks rose. The market breadth was strong. The market was closed on account of Maharashtra Day.

Asian markets, which opened before Indian markets, were strong. US stocks rose on Thursday, May 1, as a rebound in the dollar and retreating oil prices calmed fears about inflation, renewing investors' appetite for riskier assets, including undervalued technology shares.

Later, the current 30-share BSE Sensex was up by 192.15 points or 1.15 per cent (pc) at 17,479.46 points. Sensex hit a high of 17,621.24 in early trade. At the day's high, Sensex rose by 333.93 points from it last finish. The broader based S &P CNX Nifty crossed the 5,200 mark and opened firm at 5,265.30 points, with a massive gain of 99.40 points from it last close of 5165.90 points. Later, it recorded the day's high at 5,298.85 points and a low at 5199.05 points. The current index also gained by 41.65 points at 5,207.55 points.

The BSE Mid-Cap index rose by 1.6 pc to 7,252.87 and BSE Small-Cap index rose by 1.24 pc to 8,882.43.

India's largest private sector firm by market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries, rose by 0.85 per cent (pc) to Rs 2,637. Banking stocks gained across the board. Bank of India was up by 7.22 pc to Rs 367.40, followed by HDFC Bank by 3.44 pc to Rs 1,566, ICICI Bank by 3.53 pc to Rs 910.40 and State Bank of India by 2.89 pc to Rs 1,829 edged higher.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram yesterday said the state-run banks are unlikely to hike interest rates in the near future. Mr Chidambaram said banks were quite happy that only the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) has been raised by the Reserve Bank of India and policy rates have been untouched. RBI, on April 29, hiked CRR by 25 basis points to 8.25 per cent in its annual monetary policy review.

IT stocks were in limelight, as Wipro was up by 3.4 pc to Rs 505.20, followed by Tata Consultancy Services up by 3 pc to Rs 947.10, Satyam Computer services by 2.25 pc to Rs 493.05 and Infosys by 2.01 pc to Rs 1,789, edged higher.

Reliance Infrastructure was up by 4.99 pc to Rs 1,496.80, Jaiprakash Associates moved up by 4.02 pc to Rs 281.70, Tata Motors gained by 2.69 pc to Rs 680, Mahindra&Mahindra moved up by 2.33 pc to Rs 686, NTPC gained by 1.32 pc to Rs 199.35, edged higher from Sensex pack.

But Hindalco Industries was down by 3.51 pc to Rs 186.80 and Tata Steel came down by 0.32 pc to Rs 815, edged lower from Sensex pack.

Bajaj Holdings rose by 2.93 pc to Rs 730. India's largest motorbike maker by sales Hero Honda Motors gained 0.68 pc to Rs 856.50. Hero Honda Motors reported a 9.03 pc jump in motorcycle sales during April 2008 at 2,86,252 units against 2,62,544 units in the same month last year.

India's largest real estate player by market capitalisation DLF rose by 2.51 pc to Rs 722.95. DLF reported a net profit of Rs 638.55 crore on a sales of Rs 1,613.32 crore in Q4 March 2008.

India's largest telecom services provider by sales Reliance Communications rose by 0.3 pc to Rs 581.50. Reliance Communications is reportedly looking to bid for South African telecom major MTN.

Reliance Communications is talking to leading global banks to raise resources and be ready, in case MTN's management decides to invite bids, the reports added. MindTree Consulting rose by 3.88 pc to Rs 485. MindTree Consulting is reportedly set to acquire mid-tier outsourcing product development (OPD) and testing player, Aztecsoft, for around Rs 400 crore. The deal is expected to be concluded in a couple of days, the reports added.

The structural growth drivers of the Indian economy remain intact.

India's economy is expected to witness a decent-to-strong growth for a long period of time due to favourable demographics. Rating agency CRISIL, in its latest outlook for Indian economy for the year through March 2009, has stated that the overall growth scenario is expected to remain strong with investment as the main driver, brokers added.

UNI