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Heavyweights lead 43-point rally in Sensex

A late buying across Old and New Economy stocks pushed the market sharply higher today. The barometer 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 43.39 points to end the day at 3,329.28, which was near the day's high of 3,335.67.

The Sensex moved downward in mid-morning trades, however, it picked up soon after the first batch of quarterly results started pouring in and gathered strength from there on. From the day's low of 3,255.98, the Sensex gained 73.30 points to settle at close at 3,329.28.

RIL today triggered the rally on the bourses after the company reported a rise in its Q1 ended June 2001 net profit. After plunging over 2% to Rs 303.70 on the eve of the announcement of results, RIL made a smart comeback to end the day with a gain of 2.17% at Rs 319.75.

RIL announced a 13.81% rise in Q1 net profit to Rs 618 crore (Rs 543 crore) on a 4% rise in net sales to Rs 6,390 crore (Rs 6,136 crore). The market was expecting a fall in RIL's Q1 net profit. The rise in RIL's Q1 net profit is however due to downward revision in the net profit of the previous quarter ended June 2000. The company said the profit figure for the previous corresponding period had been restated to reflect changes made regarding tax and depreciation.

The buying spread to other Sensex stocks like Infosys Technologies (up 2.86% to Rs 3,761.30), Hindustan Lever (up 1.37% to Rs 221.20), ITC (up 2.57% to Rs 793.10) and Hindalco Industries (up 2.96% to Rs 756).

Tata group pivotals Tisco (up 4.38% to Rs 94.05) and Telco (up 7.73% to Rs 71.05) firmed up towards close of trading after remaining firm for most of the trading session.

On the other hand, that pharmaceutical shares like Ranbaxy Laboratories (Rs 531.60), Glaxo (Rs 271.60) and Cipla (Rs 1,070.35) recovered from the lower levels aided the Sensex's upsurge.

Shares of Dr Reddy's Laboratories jumped 5.55% to Rs 1,688.35 on buying ahead of the announcement of its Q1 results today.

But the star of the day was media major Zee Telefilms, which jumped 22.18% to Rs 86.75, led by buying by FIIs. The rally came ahead of the announcement of its Q1 results today.

Some second line IT stocks fell sharply today. This included scrips like Aptech, NIIT, SSI and Polaris Software. Computer education stocks weakened further after Aptech reported a sharp 94% fall in its Q2 June 2001 net profit after trading hours yesterday.

Earlier, the Sensex plunged 29.48 points in mid-morning trades hit by reports that Prime Minister A B Vajpayee had offered to resign over the UTI issue. This, after a member of parliament (MP) belonging to an ally of the NDA government, Sanjay Nirupam, criticised the government in a discussion over the UTI issue in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, stating that key PMO functionaries may have influenced UTI's decision in making the controversial Cyberspace investment.

However, senior party colleagues reportedly persuaded Vajpayee not to resign.

Source: www.capitalmarket.com

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