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Markets celebrate 'victory' in Kargil; Sensex crosses 4,500 level, touches five-year high

M P Joshi in Bombay

Vijay in Hindi means victory. The stock markets in India have cheered the success of Operation Vijay of the Indian armed forces in Kashmir, launched to wrest Kargil and other areas back from the Pakistan-backed 'Islamic militants'.

Leading bourses staged handsome rallies, fuelled by buying spree by foreign funds and other market players.

The Bombay Stock Exchange, India's premier bourse, led the upsurge. The 30-share benchmark index, the Sensex, rose by 222.76 points or 5.10 per cent at 4585.63, and the S&P CNX Nifty at the NSE by 61.35 points or 4.89 per cent at 1315.35 points from Friday's close.

The Sensex closed higher than its five-year-high of 4553.79 points recorded on September 19, 1994. In the case of Nifty, it was a 52-week high, sources at the respective exchanges confirmed.

After reports indicated end of hostilities and withdrawal by Pakistani intruders from Kargil and the talks between the army chiefs of both the countries, the sentiment turned extremely positive, dealers said.

The markets, already bullish following the better first quarter financial results by leading industries and emergence of signs of economic revival, were into a tizzy as foreign funds made massive purchases in the cement, power, automobiles stocks today.

The shares of L&T, Tisco, SBI, M&M, Bajaj Auto recorded widespread gains on heavy buying support. It was observed that the concentration of players was on cyclical stocks rather than the current market favourite infotech and pharma.

According to an analysis by India Index Services Limited, shares of metals, steel and steel products, plastic and plastic products, aluminium, telecommunication, casting and forging, banks, transmission towers, electric equipment, textile-synthetic, auto ancillaries, computer software, automobiles, fertilizers, bearing, paper and paper products, personal care, engineering and cables, gems and jewellery and chemicals recorded a 52-week high today.

The S&P CNX Nifty index has gained 179.05 points at 1314.55 points over the pre-Kargil level (May 26) of 1135.50 points.

The Sensex too registered a whopping gain of 612 points at 4585.63 points than the pre-Kargil level of 3973.30 points recorded on May 26.

According to leading BSE stock brokers, with the global oil prices shooting up, HPCL, BPCL went up, BHEL and ABB too gained smartly and petrochemical giant Reliance too earned smartly.

Cement realisations and offtakes both were higher in April/June, L&T, ACC, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Madras Cements and Grasim were gainers, cable shares Finolex, Sterlite shot up on huge orders from DoT (department of telecommunications).

Banking monolith SBI and national telecom gaint MTNL were also major gainers. The FMCG, pharma, software sectors though underperforming in the recent rally, looked safe bets, broker pointed out.

The broad-based BSE-100 index shot up by 93.78 to 1981.64 points from the previous close of 1887.86 points.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices closed higher by 21.81 and 8.97 points at 453.25 and 174.52 points from the last close of 431.44 and 165.55 points respectively.

Among the issues at the BSE, ACC rose by 15.65 to Rs 211.85, Ashok Leyland Rs 7.95 to Rs 107.55, Bajaj Auto Rs 40.40 to Rs 545, BHEL Rs 22.60 to Rs 305.60, BSES Rs 12.70 to Rs 171.70, Burroughs Welcome Rs 23.75 to Rs 762.10, Colgate Rs 20.25 to Rs 273.90, Dr Reddy's Rs 30 to Rs 864, Glaxo Rs 5 to Rs 757, Hero Honda Rs 23 to Rs 1,186, Hindustan Lever Rs 29 to Rs 2,400, Infosys Technologies Rs 308 to Rs 4,169, ITC Rs 34 to Rs 1,074, L&T Rs 27.10 to Rs 366.50, Pentafour Software Rs 1,265, Reliance Rs 9 to Rs 189, Satyam Computers Rs 34 to Rs 1,234, SBI Rs 19.75 to Rs 291.50, Telco Rs 21 to Rs 279 and Tisco Rs 8 to Rs 172.20.

Total turnover on the BOLT system at the BSE too rose sharply at Rs 25.96 billion as against Friday's turnover of Rs 20.69 billion.

Pentafour Software topped the list of turnover by registering highest turnover at Rs 2.04 billion, Satyam Computers Rs 1.92 billion, SBI Rs 1.88 billion, ITC Rs 1.79 billion, L&T Rs 1.66 billion, Ranbaxy Rs 1.56 billion and Reliance Rs 1.54 billion.

Other actively traded counters were Infosys, MTNL, Tisco, Tata Tea, Bajaj Auto, Hindalco, Zee Telefilm and ACC.

UNI

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