Infosys leads rally in pivotals

MUMBAI, MAY 23. Led by Infosys, select heavyweight counters moved upwards, aiding the Sensex to gain by about 34 points at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange today on fairly good purchases by foreign institutional investors on news about resolution of political problems at the Centre.

FIIs, which were net sellers on Monday and had yesterday, almost withdrawn from the market, emerged again after both BJP and Samata Party last night agreed to a `status quo' on a new Government formation in Manipur and there would be more meetings to resolve the issue.

FII purchases were witnessed in Infosys that enjoys high weightage in the Sensex. The BSE barometer was also well supported by Reliance, Grasim, ITC, Zee Telefilms and L&T, which scored handsome gains.

The BSE sensitive index opened steady at 3640.80 and later remained trapped in a small range of 3683.52 and 3640.80 before ending at 3674.54 against yesterday's close of 3640.60, a net rise of 33.94 points. The BSE-100 index rose by 18.35 points to 1792.06 from the previous close of 1773.71.

Domestic mutual funds led by Unit Trust of India, however, were sellers in a few key counters exerting pressure on the Sensex, market sources said.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq composite index completed a string of six- session gains last night working in favour of technology sector at home.

The second-line stocks, mainly from IT sector, continued to be in the limelight recording sharp gains on sustained purchases by institutional investors.

In the specified group, 136 counters including 16 index-based shares scored sharp to moderate gains while 38 others closed with moderate losses.

The BSE-200 index and the Dollex were quoted remarkably up at 390.08 and 138.21 compared with previous close of 390.08 and 136.80 respectively. The BSE-500 index gained 12.05 points at 1148.95 over yesterday's close of 1136.90.

Infosys was the top traded scrip with the highest turnover of Rs. 262.46 crores followed by Satyam Computer, Global Telesystem and Wipro.

- PTI

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