Sensex Recovers 2.2%

123jump.com Staff
26 Nov, 2007
New York City

Stocks in India rebounded but on lower volume after a rally in Asian markets. Strong start of the U.S. holiday sales lifted markets across Asia. Hong Kong and Korea led the region with a rise of more than 4%. India and Indonesia advacned 2.2% an 2.6% respectively. Banks, IT, and energy and metals stocks led the rally. Of the 30 stocks in the index, 28 rallied. Rupee edged higher against dollar.

[R]10:00AM New York, 7:30PM Mumbai-Sensex opened the trading week firm./R

The 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex gained 2.1% or 394.67 to 19,247.54, recovering from a week of losses Asian markets recovered on the hopes that the U.S. holiday shopping may not be hurt by the ongoing housing market correction.

HDFC Bank, Bharti-Airtel and Reliance Energy, Tata Steel, ONGC and Hindalco rallied over 3% each.

Reliance Industries, BHEL and Wipro surged. Satyam, Hindustan, Unilever and Bajaj Auto gained over 2% each. The broader based S&P CNX Nifty rose 123.01 points or 2.19% to 5731.7 rupees.

As 1,820 shares advanced of the BSE, 986 shares declined, and 59 shares remained unchanged. Of the Sensex index stocks, 28 gained and 2 fell. BSE turnover was registered at 5,823 rupees and on the National Stock Exchange turnover was 14,541 crore rupees.

India would start negotiations with Malaysia next year in January for a comprehensive economic co-operation agreement. The bilateral agreement is expected to enhance trade investment between the two countries. The two countries aim to increase bilateral trade to $16 billion by 2012 from the current $6.6 billion.

On the Sensex shares, Reliance Industries surged 2.5% to 2,882.85 rupees on news that the company has sold 4.01% of the equity share in its subsidiary company Reliance Petroleum by transactions through the stock exchanges. With the sale, RIL stake in RPL is reduced to 71% from 75%. Reliance Petroleum lost 2.6% at 204.05 rupees.

Reliance Communications moved up 0.9% to 687.9 rupees on the news that the company plans to sell another 5% stake in its wireless tower business.

Steel Authority of India gained 5.3% to 265.15 rupees, Tata Steel rose 3.5% to 849 rupees, Hindalco Industries rose 3.3% to 194.32 rupees and Sterlite Industries surged 2% to 896.8 rupees.

DLF rose 2.7% to 891.9 rupees, Unitech climbed 6% to 360.5 rupees and Sobha Developer went up 7.2% to 883.1 rupees.

Software stocks recovered on the weaker rupee against the dollar. In the recent week, the IT shares have been losing ground as the rupee continued to firm against the dollar.

Infosys Technologies traded up 1.2% to 1,576.35 rupees, TCS rose 2.6% to 985 rupees, Wipro surged 2.4% to 452.7 rupees, and Satyam traded firmer at 2.3% to 426.35 rupees.

Larsen & Toubro surged 1.8% to 4,175.5 rupees, Bharat Heavy Electricals jumped 2.4% to 2,605.1 rupees, Jaiprakash Associates rose 3.2% to 1,679.35 rupees and BEML jumped 9.26% to 1,775.7 rupees.

ICICI Bank gained 1.5% to 1,157.65 rupees, HDFC Bank rose 5.2% to 1,643.7 rupees, Union Bank advanced 3.5% to 174.2 rupees, Punjab National Bank increased 2.9% to 599.6 rupees and Axis Bank traded firmer at 0.7% to 936.8 rupees. State Bank of India fell 0.40% to 2,242.25 rupees.

Reliance Energy gained 3.7% to 1,789.55 rupees on news that the company has entered into a joint venture with the country''s main transmission utility Power Grid Corporation of India to execute about 300 km transmission lines from Parbati to Koldam and from Koldam to Ludhiana. Reliance Energy will have 74% stake in the joint venture.

Power Grid Corporation of India gained 0.5% to 152 rupees on volumes of 45.46 lakh shares on the BSE. Tata Motors lost 0.6% to 710.2 rupees.

Reliance Petroleum was the most active stock with he turnover of 516.79 crore rupees on BSE.

Jindal Steel & Power, Reliance Energy, Empee Distilleries, and Jaiprakash Hydro-Power were the companies on the most active list of stocks.