Sensex resumes firm at 14,359.48 pts

Mumbai, Jul 31: The benchmark Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday, July 31 resumed positive at 14,359.48 points with a gain of 72.27 points from it last finish, on fresh speculative demand from local operators.

The key benchmark indices of BSE and NSE edged lower in volatile trade after a firm start. Global cues were mixed. Crude oil surged by more than USD 4 a barrel yesterday. The market breadth was strong. ITC and Tata Motors slumped after weak Q1 results. Banking shares were under pressure, ahead of the inflation data for 12 months to July 19, 2008, to be released after trading hours today, a leading broker informed.

The market may remain volatile throughout the session as futures &options contracts for July 2008 series expire. As per reports, marketwide rollover of positions from July 2008 series to August 2008 series stood at 61 per cent, while that of Nifty was 54 per cent yesterday.

Later, the 30-share BSE Sensex was down by 95.54 points or 0.64 per cent at 14,195.14. The Sensex opened 72.27 points higher at 14,359.48 and rose further to an intra-day high of 14,360.21 in early trade. At the day's high, the Sensex rose by 73 points. At the day's low of 14,168.79, the Sensex lost 118.42 points in early trade. The broader based S&P CNX Nifty of NSE was down by 4.25 points or 0.10 per cent at 4,309.30, from it last finish.

ITC tumbled by 4.69 per cent to Rs 179.35. Tata Motors, the country's top truck manufacturer in terms of sales lost 3.07 per cent to Rs 403 after the company reported 30.10 per cent fall in net profit to Rs 326.11 crore, on 14.40 per cent rise in net sales to Rs 6,928.44 crore in Q1 June 2008 over Q1 June 2007.

Banking shares were under pressure ahead of the weekly inflation data, which will be released after market hours today. State Bank of India was down by 1.65 per cent to Rs 1,363.80, HDFC Bank eased by 1.69 per cent to Rs 1,074 and ICICI Bank came down by 1.34 per cent to Rs 626.80, edging lower from frontline banking pack, brokers said.

UNI