RIL, Infosys lead rally, sensex up 100 points

MUMBAI, NOV. 19. Led by two top heavyweights, Reliance Industries (RIL) and Infosys Technologies, stocks rallied smartly lifting the Sensex by 100 points on the Bombay stock exchange (BSE) today on heavy speculative buying coupled with selective purchases by foreign funds.

RIL hogged the limelight attracting keen demand prompted by a profitable deal of sale of the company's entire holding of 10 per cent in Larsen & Toubro to Grasim industries which would result in capital gains of Rs. 360 crores.

IT bellwether Infosys too scored impressive gains on fairly good investments by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) which were buyers in select software stocks including several second-line shares.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened firm at 3211.26 and later moved upwards to the intra-day high of 3293.28 before closing at 3280.48 against last Thursday's close of 3180.23, a net rise of 82.99 points or 2.61 per cent. The broad-based Bse-100 index flared up by 40.69 points to 1530.47 from the previous close of 1489.78.

Market sources said Ambanis who were believed to have been accumulating L&T shares in the past couple of weeks, have struck the deal with the Birla group at a 47 per cent premium over the last Thursday's closing price.

However, some counters including a few key index-based shares such as Grasim, Dr Reddy's lab, Ranbaxy Lab and Castrol bucked the trend recording sharp losses on selling pressure.

The setback in Grasim industries was attributed by the sources to the L & T shares deal that would drain company's reserves by Rs. 767 crores. RIL and Infosys Tech which were locked in the 10 per cent upper circuit at around pre-close, finished at 299.60 and 3507.75, sharp rise of 21.25 and 255.85 respectively.

Indian financial institutions led by the Unit Trust of India (UTI) reportedly booked profits at higher levels trimming the gains in key stocks.

- PTI

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