IT stocks lead rally in Sensex

MUMBAI, AUG. 14. Led by technology stocks, equities staged a smart recovery lifting the Sensex by about 44 points at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange today on fairly good buying support, prompted by optimism that weekly carry-forward would be allowed.

Partly aided by better trend on the Nasdaq stock market last night, IT stocks attracted good demand with foreign institutional investors reportedly making net purchases in key shares such as Infosys Technologies and Satyam Computers.

Retail investors and operators too made some commitments in anticipation that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) might consider at least carry-forward trading for five-day settlement period. The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened marginally up at 3290.58 and later moved in a narrow range between 3336.47 and 3290.58 before closing at 3331.89 against yesterday's close of 3287.62, a net gain of 44.27 points or 1.35 per cent. The BSE-100 index also firmed up by 22.64 points to 1564.14 from the previous close of 1541.50.

Heavyweight counters such as Infosys, Satyam Computer, NIIT, Zee Telefilms, Hindustan Lever, Dr. Reddy's Lab, ITC, L&T, SBI and Ranbaxy scored impressive gains. However, Reliance dropped further due to selling from domestic mutual funds.

In the specified group, 95 including 22 index-based counters registered sharp to moderate gains while 71 others finished with losses.

The BSE-200 index and the dollex were quoted remarkably up at 342.45 and 121.00 compared with previous close of 337.65 and 119.30 respectively. The BSE-500 index advanced by 25.50 points to 1004.51 from yesterday's close of 991.02. The dollex-30 was up at 580.54 from last close of 572.82.

The volume was low but relatively up at Rs. 940.38 crores compared to Rs. 582.79 crores yesterday. Infosys Technologies was the top traded share with turnover of Rs. 132.89 crores followed by Zee Telefilms.

Infosys shot up by Rs. 172.60 to Rs. 3,789.45, Zee Telefilms by 12.50 to Rs.102.60, and Digital Equipment by Rs. 35.95 to Rs. 506.85.

- PTI

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Section  : Business
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