Sensex 7-day Rally, Index Cross 20,000

Chandrasekhar Atreya
21 Sep, 2010
New York City

The Sensex crossed the 20000 last seen in January 2008 as foreign investors pour capital and monsoon rains are ahead of estimates. India, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan sign a preliminary agreement for a gas pipeline as the U.S. block the pipeline project from Iran.

[R]5:00 PM Mumbai – The Sensex crossed the 20000 last seen in January 2008 as foreign investors pour capital and monsoon rains are ahead of estimates. India, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan sign a preliminary agreement for a gas pipeline as the U.S. block the pipeline project from Iran.[/R]

In Mumbai trading stocks rallied for the seventh day to push the benchmark index past the 20000 last seen in January 17, 2008. Sustained international fund flows, adequate monsoon rains and economic growth has underpinned the recent advance.

The Sensex Index gained 0.48% or 95.45 to close at 20,001.55. The CNX Nifty also closed above the mark of 6,000 at 6,009.05 for the first time since January 17, 2008.

Banks will need to put in place a mechanism to verify that microfinance institutes they finance in turn do not charge exorbitant rates to the final borrowers. The finance ministry asked the bankers to ensure that micro lenders do not lend at rates more than 24%.

State-owned Punjab & Sind Bank on Monday signed an agreement with the Unique Identification Authority of India to act as a registrar for its unique identification project ‘Aadhar.’

Under the agreement, the bank having a customer base of about 65 lakhs would collect biometric and demographic details of its account holders as well as future customers.

Adani Group is firming up plans to invest Rs 14,000 crore to build a 2,000 megawatt gas-fired power plant and an LPG terminal at Mundra, the largest private sector port.

In a significant development, India on Monday signed initial agreements for a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan and Pakistan, a project that U.S. has been backing as an alternative to a line from Iran.

The four nations signed the Gas Pipeline Framework Agreement and agreements for the proposed Gas Sales Purchase Agreement for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project in Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat.

India is also actively considering building a 2,000 kilometer long deepwater transnational gas pipeline from Oman for transporting natural gas from Turkmenistan, Iran and Qatar, a leading industry official said.

The proposed sub-sea pipeline will meet the additional gas requirement of the UAE, Oman and India, besides easing gas transportation issues of producing countries like Turkmenistan, Iran, Qatar, Subodh Kumar Jain, Director of South Asia Gas Enterprises told Times of Oman.

Bharti Airtel said Monday it chose Ericsson India, Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei Technologies as network partners to launch the third generation mobile services.

All the three will plan, design, deploy and maintain a state-of-the-art 3G HSPA network in 13 telecom circles for which Bharti won the licenses for over Rs 12,000 crore.

The new bourse for currency derivatives, the United Stock Exchange of India commenced operations Monday and witnessed robust trading volumes in the first hour of trade.

After the NSE and MCX, the USE is the third bourse offering currency trading in the country. The exchange commenced operations in all four currency pairs allowed under SEBI guidelines; dollar-rupee, euro-rupee, yen-rupee, and pound-rupee.

Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh said Monday, the government was not opposed to South Korean steel giant Posco getting a majority stake in the Rs 12,000 crore proposed joint venture with Steel Authority of India Ltd.

Gainers & Losers

The Andhra Sugars Limited plunged 7.9% to Rs 132.20 after the organic and inorganic sugar maker turned ex-dividend of Rs 5 per share for the year ended March.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited increased 1.5% to Rs 2,478.95 after the engineering firm got a contract worth Rs 2,665 crore to set up a 1,200 megawatts coal-fired power plant at Chhattisgarh in central India.

DQ Entertainment (International) Limited rose 0.6% to Rs 103.95 after the animation developer signed a licensing agreement for ''The Jungle Book'' with a German company.

Delta Corp Limited soared 9.9% to Rs 76.75 after its board approved raising up to Rs 285.48 crore through preferential allotment of shares and warrants at Rs 51 each.

EIH Limited gained 1.3% to Rs 138.50 after the hotel manager said board will hold a meeting on September 23 to consider issue of shares on rights basis.

Essar Shipping Ports & Logistics Limited declined 4.1% to Rs 114.05 after Baltic Dry Index, which tracks rates to ship dry commodities, declined 1.79% in London on September 20.

HDFC Bank Limited rose 1% to Rs 2,470.70 after the American depository receipt rose 1.65% to $185.12 on the New York Stock Exchange on September 20.

Hindustan Copper Limited increased 3.2% to Rs 452.80 after the refined copper maker reported the company may raise as much as Rs 6,000 crore by selling excavated waste rocks used to lay roads and railway tracks.

ITC Limited declined 2.1% to Rs 172.75 on profit booking after the stock rose 8.61% in the preceding six sessions.

Northgate Technologies Limited spurted 4.2% to Rs 20.75 after the web based support services board approved acquiring 51% stake in Green Fire Agri Commodities.

Navin Fluorine International Limited soared 4.5% to Rs 285.75 after the fluoro-chemicals producer said board will meet on September 24 to consider buyback of shares.

Omaxe Limited rose 3.4% to Rs 141.55 after the real estate developer secured an order worth Rs 202.72 crore for construction of residential accommodation at Indore.

Opto Circuits (India) Ltd. fell 1% to Rs 318.05 after the medical equipment and device maker turned ex-dividend of Rs 4 per share for the year ended March.

PBA Infrastructure Limited increased 12.1% to Rs 85.20 after the infrastructure developer secured new orders aggregating Rs 178.25 crore from different players.

Reliance Communications Limited declined 1% to Rs 173.20 on profit booking after the stock rose 10.68% in the preceding two sessions to Rs 175 on September 20 from a recent low of Rs 158.10 on September 16.

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited surged 5.9% to Rs 563.95 after the pharmaceutical firm reported the company will have exclusive rights to sell a generic version of Eisai Co''s Aricept in the US.

Suzlon Energy Limited plunged 2.3% to Rs 55.20 after the wind power company won a 202.2-megawatt wind power project order worth Rs 1,149 crore from Kolkata-based Techno Electric Group.

Suven Life Sciences Limited increased 2.3% to Rs 30.45 after the drug intermediates and fine chemical won US patents for its two new chemical entities.

Tata Motors Limited surged 4% to Rs 1,077.40.

United Spirits Limited declined 1.4% to Rs 1,601.25 after the beverage maker turned ex-dividend of Rs 2.50 per share for the year ended March.