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Scent of a pre-Budget rally: Sensex up 122 points, Nifty up 34 points

The National Stock Exchange will conduct a single trading session on February 27, the Budget day, from 9.55 am to 4 pm.

The Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange gained 122 points and crossed the psychological barrier of 3300 as the bulls began their pre-Budget exercises by taking positions in the heavy-weighted counters during the week ended February 12.

Indications of a tough Budget could not prevent the bull operators from getting active; they sought to make the most of a possible positive impact of the Budget proposals, an analyst at the leading brokerage house said.

Pharma, automobiles and multinational companies were the front- runners during the week while the infotech counters saw mixed trend.

Marketmen attributed the mixed trend in the infotech shares to the Securities and Exchange Board of India's inquiry into some companies seeking to assume names of other successful companies with slight variations.

Reflecting the bullish phase, the 30-scrip BSE Sensex closed at 3337.49 points as against the last week's close of 3215.35 points. The broad-based BSE-100 index also shot up by 56.03 points to 1,468.12 points from the previous week's close of 1412.09 points.

The S&P CNX Index at the National Stock Exchange rose smartly by 33.95 points to 970.25 points as against the last week's close of 936.30 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty junior zoomed up by 88.05 points to 1737.75 points from the previous week's close of 1649.70 points.

According to market sources, the foreign institutional investors and domestic institutional investors also made considerable purchases in the index-based scrips during the week.

The market opened on a subdued note as share prices dropped moderately on both the BSE and NSE on Monday. However, on Tuesday, the market reported moderate recovery as the index advanced by about 24 points. The BSE Sensex zoomed up by 100 points, crossing the 3300-mark on Wednesday. Brokers attributed the jump to HLL's price crossing Rs 2,000 mark.

Market remained steady in the next two days with Sensex moving gradually further on increased buying interest from speculators and institutional investors.

The BSE witnessed total turnover of Rs 74.71 billion as against last week's turnover of Rs 69.07 billion. The NSE reported turnover of Rs 108.92 billion during the week.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices advanced by 12.22 and 4.82 points over previous week's, to close at 339.60 and 133.16 points. The last week's close was at 327.38 and 128.34 points respectively.

At the NSE, CNX Defty closed higher by 28 points to 791.95 points from the last week's close of 763.95. The CNX-500 and Midcap too rose by 24.50 and 22.75 points to 674.11 and 599.12 points from the previous close of 650.01 and 575.37 points respectively.

The Industrial Development Bank of India chairman G P Gupta announced that IDBI will decrease its exposure to the steel industry in the forthcoming year. The IDBI chairman also said that the bank will shift its focus to the infotech, agrofood processing and pharma sectors in the coming year.

Among the pharma issues, Dr Reddy's shot up by Rs 37.50 to Rs 619, German Remedies by Rs 42.75 to Rs 732, Glaxo by Rs 74.25 to Rs 699.50, Novartis by Rs 72.25 to Rs 912.75, Ranbaxy by Rs 43.25 to Rs 373, Rhone Poulen by Rs 191 to Rs 1,293, Smithkline Pharma by Rs 16.75 to Rs 502.75.

The automobile scrip Bajaj Auto gained by Rs 22 to Rs 532, Mahindra and Mahindra Rs 13.90 to Rs 195.80 and Telco Rs 19 to Rs 206.80. Among the infotech shares, NIIT zoomed up by Rs 192.25 to Rs 2409.75, Satyam Computers by Rs 90.50 to Rs 950.75 and Pentafour Software by Rs 42.25 to Rs 881.25.

Hindustan Lever earned Rs 154.50 to Rs 2026, ITC Rs 32.50 to Rs 850, SBI Rs 3 to Rs 155. The Reliance scrip held steady at Rs 121.50.

UNI

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