The Hindu : Business : Market remains upbeat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004

Business

Business

Market remains upbeat

MUMBAI, SEPT. 13. Discounting continuous uptrend in the inflation rate, the market remained upbeat, lifting the Sensex by another 27 points in an otherwise restricted activity on the Bombay Stock Exchange today on sustained purchases by foreign institutional investors.

Had it not been for profit taking by domestic mutual funds at the fag end of the session, the Sensex would have closed well past 5400-level. The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened moderately higher at 5380.71 and later moved erratically between 5421.52 and 5379.60 before ending at 5397.46 against last Friday's close of 5370.05, a net rise of 27.41 points.

Driven by consistent positive foreign institutional investor inflow, the market seemed to have turned immune to the prevailing high inflation, which has maintained upward trend for the past few weeks and risen to a new four-year high at 8.33 per cent for the week ended August 28. The FIIs have been net buyers for the last couple of weeks.

Operators and retail investors also were believed to be making fresh commitments in blue chip counters in response to continued positive FII inflow.

Brokers said buying support was confined to select blue chip counters, mainly HDFC, Dr. Reddy's Lab, Cipla, Ranbaxy, HPCL, Tata Steel and RIL. ITC, which witnessed a smart rally in the previous session following the Supreme Court judgment in favour of the company on excise disputes of Rs. 803 crores, came under pressure due to profit taking by investors. The broad-based BSE-100 index advanced further by 12.17 points to 2888.64. — PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business