MUMBAI, JULY 22: Shares closed higher amid selective buying with consumer products giant Hindustan Lever Ltd leading the rally helping the Sensex zoom past the 4700 mark on the Bombay Stock Exchange today. HLL ended 5.5 per cent or Rs 142 up at Rs 2,720 at the BSE and 4.7 per cent or Rs 123.75 higher at Rs 2,705 at the National Stock Exchange.Sensex opened fractionally down at 4656 points but later witnessed a rally reflecting the firm trend and closed at the day's high of 4728.78 as against yesterday's close of 4659.59, netting a gain of 69.19 points or 1.48 per cent. The BSE-100 index rose by 18.28 points to 2047.15 from the previous close of 2028.87."The stock is being driven by expectations of better results on good topline growth," said Purvesh Shah, chief dealer with KJMC Capital Market Services. It unveils results on Monday for the second quarter ended June 30. Besides continuous FII support, the spurt in activity was also attributed to the speculation that the Reserve Bank of India was likely tocut interest rates.Another index-based stock that rose on result expectations was Ranbaxy Laboratories which ended 4.4 per cent or Rs 38.10 up at 904. Dealers said there was some fund-based buying in banking stocks, led by State Bank of India which closed 6.5 per cent or 17.50 Rupees higher at 284.80.Rumours of a cut in the cash reserve ratio for banks, sparked off buying in other banking stocks also in late deals. Software stocks were mixed. Infosys Technologies ended 2.64 per cent lower at 4,646, continuing its correction following the fall in its American Depository Receipt. The pharmaceuticals sector was also mixed with some profit-booking in a few stocks after steep gains on Wednesday, dealers said.Dealers anticipated the present rally to continue further till the Sensex reached the 4860-level which is considered to be the resistance level. Ranbaxy clocked the highest turnover of Rs 268.75 crore of the total volume of business of Rs 2062.75 crore lower than Rs 2273.08 crore posted yesterday.Other most active scrips were SBI (Rs 213.31 crore), Satyam Computers (Rs 166.74 crore), Digital Equipment (Rs 100.32 crore) and Zee Telefilms (Rs 99.13 crore).
