The Hindu : Business : Sensex climbs over 250 points

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Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008
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Sensex climbs over 250 points

MUMBAI: Hours before the verdict on the vote of confidence, investors gave a thumbs-up for survival of the government with BSE Sensex climbing over 250 points on Tuesday to regain the 14000 level, shrugging off political uncertainty.

The bookies are reportedly quoting favourable rates for the UPA Government winning the vote of confidence and the bourses reflected almost identical sentiment and witnessed renewed buying interest after keeping downcast and highly volatile in the recent past.

Coinciding with the commencement of the special session of Parliament for the trust vote, the markets started moving up since Monday and has gained over 400 points till the close on Tuesday.

The 30-share BSE barometer, after fluctuating widely during the day, closed at 14104.20, a gain of 254.16 points, or 1.84 per cent, from its last close.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty jumped by 80.60 points to close at 4240.10 points.

Marketmen credited the gain in Sensex, which has gained 1528 points, or 12 per cent, in the last four days from July 17, to investors’ optimism that the UPA government would survive.

Analysts said the market would be impacted adversely if the Government loses the trust vote, leading to political instability.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, participating in the debate on trust vote, termed the current fiscal as a “difficult year” for the economy and yet pegged the growth rate at around 7-8 per cent for this fiscal. He also said that the revised agricultural estimates would take the Indian economy to a 9.1 per cent growth in 2007-08.

Brokers said the Finance Minister’s overall comments on the economy boosted investor sentiment to a great extent.

As buying found its feet again, FMCG and power indices surged 4.35 per cent and 4.29 per cent respectively, followed by metal and banks.

Among the stocks in the elite Sensex club, Reliance Infra notched up a handsome 6.83 per cent, while BHEL was up by just over six per cent. Another heavyweight ITC also closed 6 per cent higher. Wipro and Cipla also were up by 5.93 per cent and 4.99 per cent, respectively at close.

However, auto major Maruti Suzuki’s Q1 results failed to enthuse investors and ended in the red. While Maruti lost a hefty 9.29 per cent, Jaiprakash Associates was the next biggest loser at 4.26 per cent. Tata Motors, DLF and Airtel were the other prominent losers, in the range of two per cent.

On the BSE, 1,849 counters showed gains while 734 others finished with losses. Trading volume rose to Rs 5,522.37 crore from Rs 4,408.03 crore on Monday. — PTI

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