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Prospect of peace in Kashmir buoys market sentiment; Sensex soars 66 points to 4042.52

The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex crossed the psychological barrier of 4000 points, pushing the benchmark index up a further 60 points on heavy buying support from bull operators as well as foreign and domestic institutional investors on the last day of the weekly settlement.

The release of Flight Lieutenant K Nachiketa by the Pakistani government indicated the return of normalcy to the Kargil sector, dealers said.

The bull operators, who had been quiet since last week, made heavy purchases in select securities today, they said.

Reflecting the uptrend, the 30-scrip BSE Sensex opened on a firm note at 4035.36 points, touched the day's high of 4064.96 points, fell to the day's low of 4027.18 points, before closing at 4042.52 points, showing a net gain of 65.64 points or 1.65 per cent from the previous close of 3976.88 points.

The Sensex has thus posted a net gain of 130 points in the last three consecutive trading sessions.

The broad-based BSE-100 index advanced by 23.81 points to 1744.09, from the previous close of 1720.28 points.

Institutionalised buying support was seen at counters like Andhra Valley, Cipla, Cummins, Grasim, IDBI Bank, Indian Hotel, MRF, SBI, Tata Power and Titan.

Tisco (Tata Steel) was in the limelight along with other Tata Group securities, dealers said.

The current market favourites like pharmaceuticals, infotech and fast-moving consumer goods witnessed steady movement, they added.

Among the issues, ACC rose by Rs 4.95 to Rs 188.45, Andhra Valley by Rs 4.60 to Rs 62.65, BSES Rs 2.50 to Rs 157, Burroughs Welcome Rs 14.05 to Rs 725, Castrol Rs 2 to Rs 427, Colgate Rs 8.25 to Rs 221.50, Grasim Rs 14.95 to Rs 188.95, Hero Honda Rs 45 to Rs 1035, Hindustan Lever Rs 6 to Rs 2276.50, Indian Hotels Rs 7.60 to Rs 340, ITC Rs 26 to Rs 1056, L&T Rs 4 to Rs 264.90, Mahindra & Mahindra Rs 8.95 to Rs 234.95, Reliance Rs 6.40 to Rs 184.30, SBI Rs 11 to Rs 255.80, Telco Rs 11 to Rs 200.50, Tata Power Rs 6.50 to Rs 83.50, and Tisco Rs 8.75 to Rs 118.75.

The losers were Bajaj Auto, which dropped by Rs 4.45 to Rs 543, Dr Reddy's Labs which dropped Rs 2 to Rs 808, German Remedies Rs 15.25 to Rs 804.25, Glaxo Rs 13.55 to Rs 739.95, NIIT Rs 22 to Rs 1836, Pentafour Software Rs 5 to Rs 1093 and Satyam Computer Rs 49.50 to Rs 1280.

The BSE 200 and Dollex indices gained 4.88 and 1.85 to 396.63 and 153.78 points from the previous close of 391.75 and 151.93 points, respectively.

UNI

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