Infotech, telecom and FMCG stocks lead rally

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, FEB. 11. The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share Sensitive index (Sensex) pierced through the 6000 mark before closing at an all time high of 5933.56 today. The speculation driven market was boosted by active institutional participation. With the culmination of today's trading, the Sensex has gained more than 600 points in five trading sessions this week.

Infotech stocks led the rally with fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and telecom shares following suit. The Sensex opened with a gap at 5985.05 against the previous close of 5789.04 and moved up to 6005.85 before closing at 5933.56, a gain of 144.42 points, up by 2.50 per cent. Selling pressure at the fag end of the session, owing to squaring up by operators on account of it being the last day of settlement, pruned the days gains by about 70 points. Foreign institutional investors' (FIIs) purchases are already Rs. 1,000 crores higher than FII sales during February 2000.

Six stocks drove the market hitting the upper level circuit breaker (maximum permissible level of the day) of 8 per cent, namely, Infosys Technologies, ITC, M&M, BSES, Hindalco and MTNL. Also, an extremely upbeat mood was created in the market by the strong gains recorded by the American Depository Shares (ADS) of Infosys and Satyam. Even on the last day of settlement, speculators on the BSE took fresh positions but selling pressure continued on economy based select pivotals which pulled down the Sensex from its intra-day high to a low of 5917 points.

Many speculators joined the rally by selling commodity and economy based shares and picking up infotech, telecom and FMCG stocks. Software stocks showed a mixed trend. As was expected, the infotech majors such as Infosys and Satyam witnessed buying interest, there was selling pressure on the second-rung software stocks which have been included in the list for compulsory rolling settlement. Today's turnover on the BSE touched Rs. 5,450.54 crores against Rs. 4,130.09 crores yesterday.

Thomas Cook were in the limelight with the stock touching the 8 per cent limit and the news that the company would consider a bonus issue of shares. ITC surged 8 per cent for the third day. ACC closed at Rs. 199 (Rs. 196.45), Hindustan Lever at Rs. 2345 (Rs. 2318.75), ITC at Rs. 968.6 (Rs. 896.9), Infosys Tech Rs. 9,962.95 (Rs. 9,225), NIIT at Rs. 3050.15 (Rs. 2,999), Nestle at Rs. 435.5 (Rs. 403.25), Ranbaxy at Rs. 935 (Rs. 914.8), Satyam at Rs. 3,642.15 (Rs. 3,372), SBI at Rs. 247.6 (Rs. 246.9) and Zee at Rs. 1,340 (Rs. 1,338).

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