Sensex zooms 102 points on hectic buying

MUMBAI, OCT. 10. Led by Hindustan Lever, equities rallied sharply lifting the Sensex by about 102 at close in brisk activity on the Bombay Stock Exchange today on hectic buying support from retail investors as well as domestic financial institutions.

The news that HLL had been planning to issue bonus debentures to its shareholders prompted heavy buying support not only in the heavyweighted counter but also turned the sentiment strongly bullish. The board of the company is meeting on October 16 to consider the proposal of the gift. Sentiment was further accentuated by announcement of better-than-expected financial results for the second quarter by another heavyweight Infosys Technologies. The company posted a 30.87 per cent growth in net profit at Rs. 201.56 crores in the Q2 ended September 2001 against market expectations of a growth of about 20 per cent.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened firm at 2836.74 and later rallied sharply rising past 2900-level during the session. It closed at 2896.60 against yesterday's close of 2794.42, netting a gain of 102.18 points or 3.66 per cent. The BSE-100 index also finished up 36.60 points to 1332.46 from 1295.86.

The encouraging news had a strong sentimental impact on the market that it has even discounted all negative factors like weak economy and the on-going war in Afghanistan. Fresh fall in New York stocks with technology sector retreating further was also ignored by investors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 39 points to 9029 and the Nasdaq composite index by 23 points to 1583 yesterday.

In the specified group, 122 including 24 index-based counters registered sharp to moderate rises while 46 others closed with losses.

The BSE-200 and the Dollex-200 were quoted up at 292.83 and 101.44 against 285.87 and 98.83 respectively. The BSE-500 improved by 19.70 points to 861.97 from 842.27. The Dollex-30 was up at 494.82 against 476.37, a net gain of 18.45 points.

The volume of business was up at Rs. 1,085.30 crores against Rs. 871.08 crores. Infosys were the top traded scrip with a turnover of Rs. 166.96 crores followed by Wipro (Rs. 115.90 crores), HLL (Rs. 114.64 crores), Reliance Industries (Rs. 97.77 crores) and ITC (Rs. 80.87 crores).

- PTI

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Section  : Business
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