Sensex on the upswing by 516.19 points

Mumbai, Aug 29: The Sensex shot up on Friday, Aug 29 by 516.19 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange to end firm at 14,564.53 on hectic speculative demand by Foreign InstitutionaI Investors and domestic investors.

It was a party day for bulls as they remained in control throughout the day and did not give chance to bears for spoiling their day. Frontline indices reacted positively to fall in inflation and witnessed sharp run up despite slowdown in first quarter Domestic Product (GDP) growth. Rate sensitive infrastructure, oil, metals and technology stocks led the rally. Midcap and small cap stocks also sailed in the same boat, a leading broker said.

Markets had opened with huge gap up, on the back of strong global cues and that bullishness continued for the whole day. Sensex ended with a gain of 516.19 points or 3.67 per cent at 14,564.53. It resumed high at 14,279.02 and later it recorded the day's high and low at 14,586.16 and 14,279.02 points respectively.

Turnover traded in markets was very low on the first day of September series. It stood at Rs 59,195.74 crore. This includes Rs 10,611.51 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 43,170.27 crore from NSE F &O and balance Rs 5,413.96 crore from BSE Cash segment.

The Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) also surged 146 points or 3.46 pc to settle at 4360 points against 4214.00 on the last day. However, it resumed high at 4230.60 and then registered a high and low at 4368.80 and 4230.00 points respectively during the session.

The market breadth was strong on BSE with 1828 shares advancing as compared to 832 that declined 96 remained unchanged.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 5408 crore as compared to Rs 4085 crore during the session.

Brokers informed that Derivative contract for August 2008 series expired yesterday with strong rollovers. As per reports, marketwide rollover of positions from August 2008 series to September 2008 series stood at 83 pc, while that of Nifty was at 75 pc. In the previous series, marketwide rollover of positions stood at 79 pc while that of Nifty was at 65 pc Crude for October 2008 delivery rose USD 1.41 or to $117 a barrel today as energy companies prepared for tropical storm Gustav.

US crude had lost USD 2.56 at USD 115.59 barrel, yesterday, after the US government and the International Energy Agency pledged to release emergency stockpiles if Tropical Storm Gustav disrupted US oil production. European markets, which opened after Indian markets, were trading higher. Key benchmark indices in UK, Germany and France were up by between 0.26 per cent and 0.51 pc. Asian markets, which opened before Indian markets were trading higher today, as key benchmark indices in China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea were up by between 0.01 pc and 2.39 pc., which helped to boost the Indian bourses, brokers pointed out.

BSE key indices rallied smartly as BSE BANKEX index shot up by 413.28 points and ended firm at 413.28 points, followed by CG index by 394.12 to 11,886.62 points, OILS &GAS index by 251.67 to 9659.46 points, REALTY index by 242.18 to 4995.25 points, PSU by 238.91 to 6747.07 points, MID CAP by 133.44 to 5742.29 points, It index by 113.36 points, SML CAP by 109.34 to 6891.64 points, TECH index by 93.31 to 3073.59 points, CD index by 91.95 to 3840.79 points, AUTO index by 89.78 to 4001.23 points and POWER index by 87.70 to 2604.11 points.

Heavyweight stocks like HDFC flared up sharply by Rs 95.85 to close positive at Rs 2343.65, followed by SBI by Rs 94.15 to Rs 1,403.60, L&T by Rs 88.35 to Rs 2589.85, BHEL by Rs 77.65 to Rs 1706.55, Reliance by Rs 63.05 to Rs 2136.75, HDFC Bank by Rs 61.90 to Rs 1,277.25, REL INFRA by Rs 55.85 to Rs 991.15, Infosys Tech by Rs 48.60 to Rs 1748.50, ICICI Bank by Rs 37.50 to Rs 671.50, Bharti Tele by Rs 33.55 to Rs 837.20, Tata Power by Rs 34.85 to Rs 1,051.00, Tata Steel by Rs 28.55 to Rs 600.35, DLF Ltd by Rs 25.05 to Rs 493.30, Tata Motors by Rs 22.70 to 440.35.

UNI