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As Tokyo recovers, FIIs say sayonara to 'play-safe' mode; Sensex spurts over 41 points, 2919.74

Pivotals recovered moderately on the Bombay Stock Exchange in a steady trend following good buying support from domestic institutional investors and foreign institutional investors today.

The market opened on a weak note as the Sensex quoted at 2873.97 points marginally lower from the previous close of 2878.07, crossed the psychologically important 2900 mark to touch the day's high of 2919.74 points, and the day's low of 2820.77 before closing at 2919.74 points, showing a net gain of 41.67 points over the previous close.

Encouraged by a handsome recovery at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the FIIs made small purchases in the index-based scrips, while they also reportedly sold State Bank of India shares worth Rs 1 million. The domestic institutional investors led by UTI made good purchases in the fundamentally strong scrips. The UTI mainly bought shares of ITC, Satyam Computers, SBI, Reliance and Dr Reddy's.

Market participants also took cautious approach on a report of weak trend in London as well as New York stock markets on Tuesday.

The broad-based BSE-100 index increased by 18.57 points to 1302.85 points from the previous close of 1284.28 points. Similarly, the BSE-200 and Dollex indices closed higher by 3.87 and 1.63 points at 303.80 and 119.29 points from the previous close of 299.93 and 117.66 points respectively.

Total turnover on the BSE rose sharply by Rs 2.61 billion to Rs 17.68 billion against yesterday's turnover of Rs 15.07 billion. Satyam Computers clocked highest turnover of Rs 3.48 billion, followed by ITC Rs 3.37 billion, Zee Telefilms Rs 1.59 billion, SBI Rs 1.32 billion and Pentafour Software Rs 1.16 billion.

Hectic activity was observed at the other counters like Reliance (Rs 795.6 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 482.6 million), Dr Reddy's (Rs 365.4 million), BHEL (Rs 361.5 million), Bajaj Auto (Rs 341.7 million), Castrol (Rs 339.3 million), Infosys Tech (Rs 248.8 million), MTNL (Rs 229.7 million), Tata Tea (Rs 199.5 million) and ACC (Rs 179.2 million).

Among the issues, BSES gained by Rs 3.10 to Rs 150.90, Burrough Welcome added Rs 17.50 to Rs 493.75, Cadbury's Rs 11 to Rs 380, Castrol earned Rs 26.25 to Rs 596.75, Colgate Rs 4.40 to Rs 179 Dr Reddy's Rs 23.50 to Rs 454.50, Glaxo Rs 17.25 to Rs 451.75, Hero Honda Re 1 to Rs 592, Hindustan Lever shot up by Rs 86 to Rs 1,656, Hindalco Rs 8.75 to Rs 493.25, India Hotel Rs 8 to Rs 380.75, Ingersoll Rs 23.75 to Rs 446 ITC gained by Rs 31.50 to Rs 667.50, M&M Re 1 to Rs 169, NIIT Rs 26 to Rs 1303, Pentafour Software Rs 15 to Rs 660, Ranbaxy Rs 2.50 to Rs 554, Reliance Rs 0.70 to Rs 110, Telco Rs 2.10 to Rs 131.60, Tisco Rs 1.65 to Rs 86.25, Zee Telefilms Rs 17.75 to Rs 605.50.

Among the losers BHEL dropped by Rs 8 to Rs 258, Grasim Rs 3.30 to Rs 168.80, ICICI Rs 1.80 to Rs 47.20, Infosys Tech down by Rs 32.75 to Rs 2,276, ITC Hotels declined by Rs 8.50 to Rs 122, MTNL Re 1 to Rs 185.90 and SBI Rs 8.50 to Rs 176.10.

UNI