The Hindu : Sensex breaches 3600-mark

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 01, 2003

Business

Business

Sensex breaches 3600-mark

MUMBAI JUNE 30 . Riding piggyback on a selective stocks rally, the Sensex breached the 3600-level and ended at a 15-1/2-month high at 3607 on the Bombay Stock Exchange here on Monday on unabated buying by operators and fresh purchases from foreign institutional investors.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index, which opened moderately higher at 3585.57, moved upwards to the intra-day high at 3632.84 before ending at 3607.13 against last Friday's close of 3583.06, netting a gain of 24.07 points or 0.67 per cent. The broadbased BSE-100 index improved further by 9.02 points to 1819.36.

Pharma and steel shares attracted heavy buying support, largely because of heavy purchases in these sectors by FIIs that have pumped in $200 crores into Indian stocks and bonds in six months of the year, brokers said.

Operators seemed to be encouraged strongly by sustained net purchases by foreign funds which have made net investments of Rs. 386 crores during the first four sessions of last week.

FIIs reportedly made heavy purchases in Cipla, Dr. Reddy's, Ranbaxy, Tisco, Hindustan Lever, SBI and a few other scrips.

However, domestic funds booked profits in some blue-chip counters and expected to press sales at the prevailing higher levels, indicating a substantial correction during the week, brokers added.

While a few key stocks trimmed their gains, Bajaj Auto, ACC, Grasim, Infosys Technologies, L&T and Telco suffered a sharp setback due to selling pressure.

In the specified group, 124 including 18 index-based counters registered sharp to moderate rises while 71 others closed with losses.

The volume of business was relatively low at Rs. 1,399.88 crores from Rs. 1,525.87 crores. Infosys were the top traded share with the highest turnover of Rs. 90.60 crores followed by SBI (Rs. 78.81 crores), RIL (Rs. 78.15 crores) and Satyam Computers (Rs. 65.37 crores).

Dr. Reddy's Lab spurted by Rs. 34.20 to Rs. 1,094.70, Cipla by Rs. 11.65 to Rs. 755, Ranbaxy by Rs. 26.05 to Rs. 784.85, Cadila Health by Rs. 28.05 to Rs. 174.80, Torrent Pharma by Rs. 29.55 to Rs. 240.70, Syngenta by Rs. 15.40 to Rs. 130, German Remedies by Rs. 23 to Rs. 253, Nicholas Piramal by Rs. 22.65 to Rs. 347.95 and Aurobindo Pharma by Rs. 17.75 to Rs. 372.80.

— PTI

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