Our Markets Bureau

Mumbai, April 16: TAKING a cue from US markets, and with brightened prospects for a smooth passage of the Finance Bill and Railway Budget after the controversy of Tehelka tapes died down, the stock markets reacted positively and the bourses finished in positive territory on Monday, the first time in the current month.

The BSE Sensex gained 68 points while the NSE Nifty closed the day with a gain of 20 points. The new economy stocks were in huge demand as they offered value-buying at lower levels and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) resorted to bottom fishing in these counters. All the frontline new economy stocks were locked in the upper circuit of 16 per cent. However, there were some counters like Mastek and Zee Tele, which lost heavily during the day and remained frozen in the lower circuit limit of 16 and 9 per cent respectively. Leading pharma stocks like E.Merck, Aurbindo Pharma, Ranbaxy Laboratories and Cadila Healthcare bore the brunt of heavy unloading.

The BSE Sensex gradually moved upwards after the mid-session and closed at 3251.62, showing a net rise of 67.85 points. Nifty also followed suit and closed with a gain of 19.80 ponints at 1044.60.

In a four-day streak, the Nasdaq Composite index finished the week on Friday last with a rise of about 15 per cent injecting some life into the domestic software stocks that witnessed investors’ wrath following lower revenue projections for 2001-02 by the IT bellwether, Infosys Technologies, in the previous week.