Sensex Scales Fourth Day Advance

Elena
29 Mar, 2006
New York City

Market in India rose for the fourth day in a row to a new high after adding 0.9% for the day and 3.2% in the last four days. Broad buying from the local and foreign investors led the advance but on a significant declining volume. Sugar and software exporters led the rally on higher sugar prices and rising earnings expectation.

[R]9:00AM Sensex reaches another high.[/R]
Sensex in Mumbai, India scaled a new high, after advancing fourth day in a row, 11,183 up 97 points or 0.88%. The Sensex index has gained 3% in the last four days. Stocks rose on a significant lower turnover. The broad buying in small and mid cap stocks in the last hour of trading supported the advance. Sugar, engineering and IT stocks rose on the rise in global price for sugar, rising expectations of better earnings for software export and engineering companies.

Several sugar companies registered better than 10% gains during the session including Triveni Engineering, Mawana sugar and Bannari Amman sugar. Other sugar companies registered better than 5% gains including Balrampur Chini, Ugar Sugar and Bajaj Hindustan. Software exporters gainers were led by a strong rise of 4.3% in Satyam Computers, 2.5% in Infosys and 2.1% in Wipro. NDTV, local media company, rose 6% on the news that the company has entered into a partnership with Genpac to sell broadcasting services to regional and media companies. Thomas Cook India jumped 7.5% on the news that the company is in the process of acquiring three travel agencies.


[R] 8:00 AM European averages traded higher at mid-day.[/R]
European markets traded higher at mid-day, recovering from two-day losses. Markets advanced, boosted by solid gains in Asian-Pacific stocks, ignoring Wall Street weakness after the Fed Reserve raised the short-term interest rate and gave signals that further hikes are expected. European retailers like Ahold and J. Sainsbury were in the spotlight today. The German DAX 30 gained 0.2%, the French CAC 40 rose 0.5%, and London FTSE 100 climbed 0.6%.


[R]7:45AM Asian markets finished mixed. Singapore and Japan hit new highs.[/R]
Asian-Pacific benchmarks ended mixed with Singapore and Japan hitting new multiyear highs. The Nikkei reached a nearly six-year high of 1.5% to 16,938.41, lifted by improved confidence in economic recovery and fresh fund flows. Technology and exporter-related issues advanced on stronger dollar vs. the yen Gainers included Yahoo Japan, up 7.6%, Tokyo Electron 3.4%, Advantest Corp, up 3.9%. Banking stocks also gained strength. Among other regional markets, Singapore Straits Times hit a six-year high of 0.3%, China’s share prices rose 0.5%, Taiwan’s Weighted index climbed 0.7% on expectations of strong results among chip makers, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.7% on property stocks, following U.S. interest rate increase.