Sensex spurts 272 points

The market kept on advancing as the day progressed on steady buying demand for index pivotals throughout the day, except for an hiccup in early trade. Turnover was healthy today and it crossed Rs 7,500 crore on BSE. Both the niche indices BSE Sensex and S&P CNX Nifty struck all time highs.

European markets which opened after Indian market, were mixed. Asian markets which opened before Indian market advanced today, 24 September 2007. US markets posted gains on Friday, 21 September 2007.

The 30-shares BSE Sensex was up 271.86 points or 1.64% to 16,836.09, as per provisional closing. It had opened on an upbeat note at 16,697.89 tracking firm global cues. It’s low for the day was at 16,599.66. It surged to an all time high of 16,869.64 in late trade.

The S&P CNX Nifty was up 93.35 points or 1.93% to 4,930.90 as per provisional closing. It struck an all time high of 4,941.15

Despite solid rally in market, the market breadth was negative on BSE with 1454 shares declining as compared to 1302 that advanced. 51 remained unchanged. The breadth was strong in opening trade.

As per provisional closing, the BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.53% to 7,309.84. It hit an all-time high of 7,321.02 today. BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.68% to 8,955.59. The index hit record high of 9,013.35 today.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 7,744 crore as compared to Rs 6,040 crore by 14:30 IST

Among the 30-member Sensex pack, 25 advanced while the rest declined.

India’s top private sector utility company in terms of revenue Reliance Energy (REL) surged 8.17% to Rs 1092.10 on 21.52 lakh shares. The stock hit all-time high of Rs 1130.70 in intra-day trade. It was the top gainer from Sensex pack. As per recent reports, REL is scouting for coal mines in Indonesia, Australia, Africa and Mozambique and it sees infrastructure projects such as road and rail transport as key growth drivers.

National Thermal Power Corporation, the country’s largest power generation company by net sales jumped 4.96% to Rs 196.80 on 46.18 lakh shares. It replaced Dabur India in the S&P CNX Nifty index from today.

India’s top small-car market by market share, Maruti Suzuki India galloped 7.47% to Rs 999. Last week, Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) cleared Maruti's proposal to form a joint venture for setting up an exhaust parts manufacturing facility in Haryana with Japan's Futaba Industrial Company. Futaba will hold 51% in the venture.

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest listed cellular services provider by market share rose 2.52% to Rs 941.50. As per reports, it has got licence to start Direct-To-Home (DTH) services in the country and announced an investment of Rs 150 crores in the first phase to launch nation-wide operations, a move that would bring in much required competition in the DTH segment. Also another set of reports state that Bharti Airtel may get extra spectrum for Delhi and Mumbai under the existing subscriber-base norms.

India’s largest power equipment maker in terms of net sales Bhel gained 1.82% to Rs 2002. It hit lifetime high of Rs 2025. As per recent reports, Bhel it is looking at mergers and acquisition to fuel inorganic growth and it targeting a turnover of Rs 45,000 crore by 2012.

Banking pivotals advanced on fresh buying. ICICI Bank (up 3.19% to Rs 996), HDFC Bank (up 2.37% to Rs 1354.05), and State Bank of India (up 0.75% to Rs 1821.90), edged higher.

India’s largest private sector entity by market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 3.63% to Rs 2357 on 7.87 lakh shares. It hit an all time high of Rs 2375 in intra-day trade. RIL said on Saturday, 22 September 2007 that it has struck oil in the deepwater block KG-D4 located in the Krishna Basin. The commercial viability of the discovery is being evaluated. RIL holds 100% participating interest in this block, which spans over an area of 8100 sq. kms. The rumors about RIL’s oil find had already hit the market on Friday, 21 September 2007.

India’s second largest telecom services provider market capitalisation Reliance Communications jumped 3.26% to Rs 598.25 on high volumes of 38.27 lakh shares. A block deal of 14.10 lakh shares was struck on at Rs 590 per share in early trade on BSE.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the country’s second largest engineering & construction company in terms of market capitalisation, soared 4.49% to Rs 2908. As per recent reports, it is close to acquiring a stake in Feedback Ventures, a leading integrated infrastructure services firm. The stock hit an all time high of Rs 2910 on BSE

IT shares were weak throughout the day. India’s second largest software services exporter Infosys Technologies was the top loser from Sensex pack. It slipped 3.30% to Rs 1761.90 on 2.83 lakh shares

Other IT pivotals, Satyam Computers (down 2.76% to Rs 407.30), TCS (down 1.08% to Rs 1004), were not spared either.

ITC (down 1.47% to Rs 188) and Grasim (down 0.07% to Rs 3445) were the other losers from Sensex pack.

European markets which opened after Indian market, were mixed today, 24 September 2007. Key benchmark indices in France (up 0.18% to 5,710.71), and United Kingdom (up 0.51% to 6,489.40) rose. However, Germany’s DAX was down 0.17% to 7,781.02

Asian markets which opened before Indian market advanced today, 24 September 2007. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (up 1.12% at 26,133.46), Shanghai Composite (up 0.56% to 5,485.03), and Singapore's Straits Times (up 2.73% at 3,639.02) advanced. Stock markets in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were closed for public holidays.

US stocks posted steady gains on Friday, 21 September 2007 capping a strong week for Wall Street, as investors drew confidence from strong results at Oracle Corp. and a continued sense that lower interest rates should help bolster the economy. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 53.49, or 0.39%, to 13,820.19. Broader stock indicators also rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 7.00, or 0.46%, to 1,525.75, while the Nasdaq Composite index rose 16.93, or 0.64%, to 2,671.22.

Indian market may, however, turn volatile this week ahead of the expiry of September 2007 futures & options (F&O) contracts on Thursday, 27 September 2007.

Crude oil prices dipped on Monday, 24 September 2007 as oil and gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico restored more output after a mild storm triggered evacuation and production cuts. US crude for November delivery fell 22 cents to $81.40 a barrel.

As per provisional data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased shares worth a net Rs 762.13 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net sellers of shares worth Rs 277.68 crore on Friday, 21 September 2007

The market posted weekly gains for fifth straight week, with the BSE Sensex surging 960.43 points or 6.16% to 16,564.23 in the week ended Friday, 21 September 2007. This is the biggest weekly gain ever posted by Sensex. The S&P CNX Nifty rose 319.55 points or 7% at 4,837.55 during the week.

As per the data released on Friday, 21 September 2007, inflation based on the wholesale-price-index rose 3.32% for the week ended 8 September 2007 as against 3.52% in the previous week.