Sensex spurts by another 83 points

MUMBAI, MAR 8: The stock exchanges remained in the bull orbit on Monday with the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index Sensex surpassin...

MUMBAI, MAR 8: The stock exchanges remained in the bull orbit on Monday with the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index Sensex surpassing the psychological barrier of 3700 points and shot up by yet another 83 points. Share prices gained sharply on heavy buying support from foreign institutional invetsors FIIs and local operators.

In fact, Sensex had shot up by nearly 126 points during the mid-session. However, reports that the government had revoked the President8217;s rule in Bihar prompted marketmen to book profits. After today8217;s 83-point gain, Sensex had shot up by around 500 points after the presentation of the Union Budget on February 27. Despite the claims of the exchanges and the SEBI that the markets are safe, share prices and indices showed huge volatility.

Sensex opened higher at 3704.29 from the previous close of 3649.06 and zoomed up to touch the day8217;s high of 3775.45 in the opening hour. It reacted negatively to the Government8217;s decision to revoke the President8217;s rule in Bihar and fell belowthe 3700 level to touch the day8217;s low of 3687.43 points. However, it recovered smartly towards the fag end and closed higher at 3732.10, showing a net gain of 83.04 points from the previous close.

On the National Stock Exchange NSE, the Samp;P CNX Nifty Index gained smartly by 17.65 points to 1072.10 points as against Friday8217;s close of 1054.45 points.

According to leading brokers, FIIs made considerable purchases in infrastructure shares like Larsen amp; Toubro, BHEL, MTNL and others like Satyam Computer, State Bank, Glaxo and Novartis. BPCL, HPCL and Castrol also turned out to be FIIs favourite counters, dealers said. While UTI sold some of the B8217; group shares, except Tata Tea, the FMCG fast moving consumer goods counters witnessed a downtrend.

Hind Lever also reported a major decline on selling pressure from FIIs and leading domestic players, they said. There was a big list of scrips which hit the upward circuit filters. These scrip includes SBI, Digital Equip, Guj Gas, Rolta, Glaxo, IPCA, Blue Star,BPCL, MTNL, Crest Communication, IBP, Ion Exchange, National Peroxide and ITC. However, select pharma and infotech shares declined on continuous selling pressure from operators, dealers said. Fund managers said the sentiment remained distinctly bullish and even political developments failed to have any adverse impact on the market8217;s behaviour. 8220;A series of concessions and incentives to sectors such as mutual funds, computer software, entertainment, housing and other infrastructure companies announced in the financial budget for 1999-2000 and announcement of cut in bank rates by the Reserve Bank of India RBI were responsible for ongoing boom-like scenario on the market,8221; said a broker.

Operators were very optimistic about the future trend of the market on hopes that the economy was on a decisive turnaround path. There is a general optimism that the current bull phase generated by positive measures announced in the budget and the interest rate cut would take Sensex to the 3900 level.ITC scrip crossesRs 1,000 level

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MUMBAI: ITC hogged the limelight on the stock exchanges on Monday with the scrip spurting by Rs 49.25 points to Rs 1009.25. The scrip of the cigarette giant shot up due to massive buying by foreign funds and local operators.

Out of the total business of Rs 2,527 crore on the BSE, ITC alone accounted for Rs 382.56 crore. Speculation was rife that BAT of the UK would increase its stake in ITC and the Indian company would come out with better performance.