FIIs push Sensex up

MUMBAI, June 17: Pivotals once again rallied on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE today mainly on speculative support coupled with fresh buyi...

MUMBAI, June 17: Pivotals once again rallied on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE today mainly on speculative support coupled with fresh buying by the foreign institutional investors FIIs. The Sensex recovered 62 points. After the previous session8217;s hesitancy, the market trend changed for better with several blue chips scoring handsome gains in hectic activity. The closing rates showed widespread modest to handsome gains. The volume of business remained brisk.

The BSE sensitive index started marginally higher at 4027.64 and later rose sharply to close at 4087.64 with a net gain of 62.23 points compared to the previous level of 4025.41. The BSE-100 index shot up by 23.66 points to 1748.93 from the previous level of 1725.27.

Brokers said that despite today being the last session for the current settlement in the National Stock Exchange NSE, the operators, who had resorted to short-selling in several pivotals covered their short position resulting in a partial recovery. FIIs bought shares of ITC, Telco, Mahindra and Mahindra, BASF, Kirloskar Cummins and others. The recovery was in view of deferment of a decision on the contentious issue of hike in prices of petroleum products till June 27.

ITC recorded the highest turnover of Rs 345.46 crore of the total volume of business of Rs 1,223.14 crore followed by SBI Rs 286.39 crore, Reliance Rs 189.57 crore, Telco Rs 72.93 crore and Tata Steel Rs 50.04 crore.

ITC recovered smartly by Rs 19 to 500.75 on short covering. Reliance rallied by Rs 6 at Rs 323 and SBI Rs 11.75 to Rs 339.50 on fresh buying. ACC spurted by Rs 66.75 to Rs 1215.75, Bajaj Auto by Rs 31 to Rs 945, G E Shipping by Rs 3.50 to Rs 39.50. Hindustan Lever gained Rs 49.75, Indian Hotels Rs 13.75, Mahindra and Mahindra Rs 21.25 and Tata Tea Rs 18.75. Gujarat A Cement, ICICI, IDBI, Hero Honda, Lakme, Larsen, Thermax, Colgate, Grasim, MTNL, Century, Excel, Siemens and SPIC also remained better.

However, BHEL, HPCL, Hindalco, IPCL, BPCL, Bombay Dyeing and Castrol remained subdued. In cash group, Infosys Tech flared up by Rs 162.75 to Rs 1791.75, Tata Infotech by Rs 45.25 to Rs 922.25, Thomas Cook by Rs 23.50 to Rs 1462.50, TVS-Suzuki by Rs 30.50 to Rs 425.50 and Otis Elavator by Rs 11.25 to Rs 323.25.

Meanwhile hectic trading was witnessed in NSE as share prices rose sharply on the last day of the current settlement cycle. The NSE-50 index opened higher at 1134.90 and rose steeply to 1145.80, before closing at 1138.80, showing a good gain of 9.10. The Midcap started weak at 1165.15, but soon improved to 1172.50 and closed at 1168.90, showing a gain of 2.85. The total volume was Rs 2,017.85 crore.