COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Pharma, software shares lead rally; Sensex up 77 points, 4717

Led by software and pharma scrips, equities at the Bombay Stock Exchanged staged a handsome rally on renewed buying support extended by foreign institutional investors and domestic operators on the opening day of the new trading cycle at the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

The BSE-30 Sensitive Index (Sensex) rose by 76.87 points or 1.65 per cent to close at 4716.81 as against the previous session's close of 4639.94. Opening higher at 4683.99, the Sensex touched an intra-day high of 4757.04 but declined to a low of 4683.99.

Marketmen said the end of the Kargil conflict coupled with the finance minister's statements last week that the country's revenues were buoyant to manage any contingencies on the expenditure front, aided the positive sentiment. Brokers expect the rally to continue in the coming days.

Bangalore-based Infosys Technologies remained the market leader registering a smart gain of around Rs 400 in today's session.

The Infosys scrip hit the upper-circuit filter at Rs 5,500. The scrip has ended at Rs 5,110 on Friday. Marketmen informed that the price-rise of the company's American Depository Receipts listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange of the US by $ 48 to $ 118 from the previous close of $ 70 fuelled the buying spree in the scrip.

Several software and pharma scrips also hit their upper-circuits. Zee Telefilms ended Rs 150 higher at Rs 1,890 from the last close of Rs 1,740. Pentafour Software ended at Rs 1,280 rising Rs 74 from the last close of Rs 1,206. Satyam Computers rose by Rs 110 to close at Rs 1,488, Ranbaxy ended Rs 41 higher at Rs 815, Tisco at Rs 150, Reliance at Rs 185 and Telco at Rs 275.

Mirroring the uptrend, the BSE-100 index ended 48.52 points higher at 2044.44 from the last closing of Rs 1995.92. The BSE-200 and Dollex indices ended 10.83 and 4.26 points higher at 467.73 and 180.14.

Meanwhile, at the National Stock Exchange, the S&P CNX Nifty registered a rise of 1.91 per cent to close at 1349.60, a gain of 25.35 points from the last close of 1324.25.

UNI

Business news