Sensex zooms 161 points

MUMBAI, FEB. 7. Equities rallied sharply lifting the Sensex by about 161 points and clocking highest ever volume on the opening day of the new account on the Bombay Stock Exchange here today in the wake of renewed buying from speculators as well as fresh purchases by foreign institutional investors.

Reflecting the price boost in kerb deals last Saturday following an upswing in the ADR price of Infosys Technologies and the Nasdaq composite index on the American market on Friday, the benchmark 30-share index opened with a wide gap at 5431.55 and moved upwards to the day's high of 5518.29 before closing at 5474.00 against last weekend close of 5313.59, netting a gain of 160.41 points. The BSE-100 index also flared up by 59.75 points to 3181.05 from 3121.30.

The FIIs were reportedly net buyers in Infosys, NIIT, MTNL, Sterlite and select other software scrips. Software stocks were once again in the limelight with several shares scoring impressive gains as fresh funds which were coming into the markets had been utilised for purchases in this sector. However, the interest in economy stocks was lacking due to the pre-budget caution.

Hints by the Union Finance Minister earlier last week about harsh measures in the forthcoming budget had created a feeling among operators that these would impact negatively companies other than infotech sector, dealers said.

However, a section of marketmen felat that the measures would only confine to disinvestment programme for the public sector enterprises.

Among the scrips that hit the upper price band at the close, the prominent ones were Infosys, Global Tele, Hoechst Marrion, Tata Tea, HCL Info, ITC, MTNL, Digital Equipment and ICICI. However, E.Merck, SSI and Dr. Reddy's Lab met with heavy selling pressure and were locked in lower circuit filter.

The BSE-200 index and the Dollex were quoted up at 701.17 and 267.69 against 689.45 and 263.21 respectively. The BSE-500 index increased by 34.23 points to 2105.79 from 2071.56.

Satyam Computer were the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs. 695.48 crores of the total volume of business of Rs. 5,293.19 crores. Other top traded shares were Pentafour Software (Rs. 561.90 crores), Himachal Futuristic (Rs. 452.57 crores), Zee Tele (Rs. 343.05 crores) and Reliance (Rs. 296.45 crores).

- PTI

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