Sensex rises 89 points

MUMBAI, OCT 7: The Unit Trust of India UTI went on an aggressive buying spree on the stock exchanges with the BSE Sensitive going up by 89 points while the NSE-50 was up by 29 points. Fuelled by the statement from the Finance Secretary, Vijay Kelkar that everything is all right with the UTI, operators started buying in key scrips like ITC, SBI, Reliance, Mamp;M, Glaxo, Dr Reddy8217;s Lab and software counters. Bulls heavily extended commitments in line with buying on the opening day of new account on the National Stock Exchange.

The BSE Sensex opened firm at 2940.13 points and moved upwards to close at 3008.63 points as against yesterday8217;s close of 2919.74 points. The BSE-100 index too shot up by 40.26 points to 1343.11 from previous close of 1302.85. Reports that the US President Bill Clinton will decide soon whether to veto the bill authorising him to decide to lift sanctions against India and Pakistan had raised interest in the market. Dealers viewed the situation as positive8217; and expected the Sensex to hit3150-level before the Diwali festival.

The BSE-200 and the Dollex were quoted substantial up at 312.64 and 122.62 compared with previous close of 303.80 and 119.29 respectively.

Satyam Computers remained the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 374.02 crore of the total volume of business of Rs 1,565.04 crore. Other top traded scrips were ITC at Rs 298.40 crore, Zee Telefilms at Rs 128.11 crore, Pentafour Software Rs 124.09 crore and SBI at Rs 96.28 crore. Satyam Computer flared up by Rs 44 to Rs 597 while ITC was up by 28.50 to 696, Zee Telefilms by 29.50 to 635, Pentafour Software by 46.25 to 691.25.