Smart rally in RIL lifts Sensex past 3000 mark

MUMBAI, OCT. 17. Well supported by a smart rally in the heavy- weighted counter Reliance Industries (RIL), the Sensex closed above the 3000 level on the Bombay Stock Exchange on fairly heavy buying support by operators as well as fresh purchases by foreign funds.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened moderately up at 2998.86 and later surged to the intra-day high of 3050.07 before ending the day at 3043.85 against yesterday's close of 2992.46, a net gain of 51.36 points or 1.72 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 index shot up by 27.05 points to 1406.78 from the previous close of 1379.73.

Attributing fresh buying spree in the trend-setter Reliance to the Government's decision to allow companies to buy back up to 10 per cent of their shares without having to seek the approval of shareholders, market sources said Reliance management seemed to be the first to use the relaxation in buyback norms.

They further said a bull syndicate made heavy purchases in several key counters estimating their investments to around Rs. 100 crores in the session.

Led by Saw Pipe that, once again, was stuck in the 20 per cent upper limit for the second successive day, several second-line stocks including many software shares witnessed a rally on good purchases.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq composite index yesterday ended up by 25.76 points at 1722.07 and the Dow Jones industrial average moved up 36.61 points to 9384.23.

A firm trend in the South-east Asian stock markets also partly aided sentiment. The Nikkei was up by 117.63 points, Hang Seng by 112.32 points and Singapore ST index by 13.42 points at close.

In the specified group, 129 including 22 index-based scrips registered sharp to moderate gains while 43 others closed with losses.

The BSE-200 index and the Dollex-200 were quoted sharply up at 308.09 and 106.88 from previous close of 302.88 and 104.97 respectively. The BSE-500 index rose by 14.99 points to 906.58 from 891.59. The Dollex-30 moved up further by 9.32 points to 520.73 from 511.41.

The volume of business improved sharply to Rs.1,355.49 crores from Rs. 1,124.62 crores yesterday. Wipro clocked the highest turnover of Rs. 159.99 crores followed by Satyam Computer, Infosys, Digital Global and Ranbaxy.

- PTI

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