Sensex up 18 pts on FII buying in new economy, pharma

Our Markets Bureau

Mumbai, Aug 21: On the back of huge buying by the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in the new economy and pharma counters, the bearish trend witnessed at the bourses since the last two consecutive sessions was halted and the benchmark indices managed to close on Tuesday in the black, with moderate gains. The BSE Sensex gained 18 points, while S&P CNX Nifty edged up 5 points.

According to the dealers, the fall in US markets and particularly at the tech-heavy Nasdaq was arrested and it posted modest gain of 14 points on Monday night, ahead of the Fed Reserve rate cut. FIIs bought heavily on the expectation of quarter percentage cut in the US interest rate. This would be the seventh rate cut during the current year by the Federal Reserve chairman Allan Greenspan.

The Sensex opened at 3286.13, which happened to be its intra-day low level and climbed up to breach the 3300-mark to reach the day’s best of 3310.53 before closing at 3286.13, a gain of 18.48 points. Nifty closed at 1068.70 as compared to previous close of 1063.75, gaining 4.95 points.

FIIs seemed to have bought Satyam Computer, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Infosys Technologies and Zee Telefilms. Domestic financial institutions led by Unit Trust of India (UTI) continued their selling spree in leading old as well as new economy stocks.

The turnover at the BSE inched up marginally to Rs 646 crore from Rs 612 crore on Monday last. Zee was the top gainer and the most active stock, with the counter gaining 3.6 per cent to close at Rs 108.

Power major BSES was in demand to gain 2.90 per cent at Rs 197.50. PSU refinery giant HPCL also attracted some buying and gained 2.18 per cent to close at Rs 131.45.

Though Satyam, Infosys and HLL have registered marginal gains due to their heavy weightage in the index, the Sensex managed to end in the black.

HCL Infosystems was the major gainer of the day with the stock jumping almost 22 per cent to close at Rs 65.80. Other major gainers were Philips, Ingersol Rand, Voltas, Mirc Electronics, Mastek, HCL Techno and Tata Elxsi.

However, automobile major Tata Engg continued to attract profit-booking and lost almost 5 per cent to close at Rs 73.80.

NIIT and cement major Grasim were the other prominent losers among the index stocks, and were down by 3.85 and 2.61 per cent to close at Rs 171.25 and Rs 298.30 respectively.