HLL spurts; Sensex up by 100 points

Brokers said the sentiment turned bullish on speculative buying in Hindustan Lever. According to operators, HLL which is scheduled to announce its financial results on February 15 is expected to come out with good result. The HLL scrip shot up by Rs 151 to Rs 2033 by surpassing the Rs 2000 mark at the BSE, while it closed higher at Rs 2019.60 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The suddenspurt in several other pivotals was also due to speculative buying following the start of the new account on the NSE. The fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies were the front runners along with pharmaceutical firms. Software shares also attracted fresh buying.

FIIs entered in a big way making all-round purchases, particularly in scrips like Castrol, TELCO, ITC, TISCO, Zee Telefilms and others. Domestic funds too were net buyers in heavy weighted shares like TELCO, TISCO, MTNL Reliance and SBI. The local institutions were seen booking profits at higher levels in scrips like HLL, ITC and MTNL besides pressing continuous sales few others.

The volume of business rose sharply by Rs 173.41 crore to Rs 1568.74 crore compared to yesterday’s turnover of Rs 1395.33 crore. Pentafour Software remained the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 276.23 crore followed by Satyam Computer of Rs 149.09 crore, Tata Tea of Rs 131.88 crore, ITC of Rs 125.72 crore and HLL of Rs 82.75 crore. Satyam Computer gained Rs16.50 at Rs 900, Tata Tea Rs 31.25 at Rs 424.75, ITC Rs 9.75 at Rs 839.75, Reliance Rs 3.70 at Rs 123.20, SBI Rs 2.10 at Rs 154.10, TELCO Rs 14.70 at Rs 198.70 and TISCO Rs 3.20 at Rs 118.10 on buying support. ACC, BHEL, Castrol, Grasim, Larsen and Indian Shaving also remained firm.