ITC leads rally, Sensex up 60 points

MUMBAI, NOV. 1. Under the leadership of tobacco-giant ITC, equities rallied smartly, lifting the Sensex by 60.45 points, past the 3000-mark to close at 3049.80 on the Bombay Stock Exchange today due to across-the-board buying by foreign funds and operators.

Dealers said buying was not only confined to a particular sector but it was broad-based.

Index heavyweight, ITC remained the glamour share, posting sharp gains on heavy demand from foreign funds.

BHEL, ACC, Dr. Reddy's Lab, Glaxo, HPCL, Hindalco, MTNL, Reliance, SBI, Infosys, NIIT, Satyam Computers and Zee Telefilms were other main contributors to the Sensex gains.

New economy counters were in the limelight and attracted brisk buying support from foreign institutional investors following a rebound on the Nasdaq wherein the composite index recouped 22.79 points last night.

Majority of pharma shares were also in keen demand due to secure buying by some foreign funds while domestic funds reportedly picked up some old-economy counters.

Depicting the upbeat mood, the BSE-30 share sensitive index opened higher at 3003.95 and gradually moved upwards to a high of 3062.77. However mild profit-booking trimmed part of the early gains and the index concluded at 3049.80, against yesterday's close of 2989.35, a sharp gain of 2.02 per cent.

The BSE-100 index also shot up by 24.95 points to 1414.12 from the previous close of 1389.17.

After a prolonged bear phase, auto segment shares finally found followers and gained handsomely. In the specified group, 113 including 23 index-based scrips recorded sharp to moderate gains while 56 others closed with losses.

The BSE-200 index and the Dollex-200 index were quoted remarkably up at 311.15 and 107.92 against the previous day's close of 306.30 and 106.31 respectively. The BSE-500 index improved further by 13.53 points to 916.37 from 902.84. The Dollex-30 rose by 10.02 points to 521.64 from 511.62.

The volume of business improved further to Rs. 1,129.87 crores from Rs. 1,002.68 crores. ITC topped the list of highest traded securities with a turnover of Rs. 120.12 crores followed by Infosys, Satyam Computers, Digital Global and Dr. Reddy's Lab. ITC shot up by Rs.50.70 to Rs.737.70.

- PTI

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Section  : Business
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