FII buying in IT stocks lifts Sensex by 47 points

MUMBAI, OCT. 11. Led by IT bellwether Infosys Technologies, technology stocks remained in favour lifting the Sensex by another 47 points at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange today on sustained buying from retail as well as domestic funds and heavy purchases by foreign institutional investors.

The BSE sensitive index opened up at 2899.80 and later shot up to the day's high of 2956.86 before closing at 2943.69 against yesterday's close of 2896.60, a net gain of 47.09 points or 1.63 per cent. The BSE-100 index firmed up by 20.52 points to 1352.98 from 1332.46.

The FIIs who had slowed down their activity in the past couple of days, were heavy buyers in IT stocks and reportedly made sizable net purchases in key counters such as Infosys, NIIT, Satyam Computers, Digital Global and Zee Telesystems.

The sudden shift in FII focus to technology sector was attributed to a sharp upswing in the ADRs of Indian software companies on the Nasdaq yesterday after the announcement of stronger-than- expected Q2 working results by Infosys.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq composite index also bounced back by 188.42 points and 56.07 points respectively yesterday. Sentiment was also boosted by a smart rally in stocks on Southeast Asian markets. The Nikkei spurted by 383.13 points, Hang Seng by 224.37 points and Singapore ST by 30.18 points at close on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the latest United Nations report said that September 11 attacks on the U.S. would depress world economic growth by one per cent this year and wipe out the forecast growth in international trade.

In the specified group, 119 including 19 index-based counters registered sharp to moderate gains while 50 others finished with losses.

Infosys, NIIT, Zee Telefilms and Digital Global were locked in the upper 10 per cent price band at close.

The BSE-200 and the Dollex-200 were quoted up at 297.46 and 103.11 against 292.83 and 101.44 respectively. The BSE-500 was up 13.17 points at 875.14 against 861.97. The Dollex-30 improved further by 8.36 points to 503.18 from 494.82.

The volume of business improved moderately to Rs. 1,172.73 crores from Rs. 1,085.28 crores yesterday. Wipro were the top traded share with a turnover of Rs. 160.55 crores followed by Infosys (Rs. 155.36 crores), Ranbaxy (Rs. 148.80 crores), Reliance Industries (Rs. 97.78 crores) and Satyam Computers (Rs. 66.48 crores).

- PTI

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