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Sensex spurts over 58 points on buying support from all corners; 2890.72

Pivotals staged a smart recovery at the Bombay Stock Exchange on good buying support from foreign institutional investors today.

With barely two days left to end the Samvat-2054, local operators did not show interest in long-term commitment, while the FIIs made sizeable purchases at the select counters like BHEL, Satyam Computer and Hindustan Lever Limited. The Unit Trust of India too bought index-based shares, leading BSE brokers said.

The Reliance counter witnessed buying from company circles, they said.

With good buying support from all corners, the BSE Sensex during the day crossed the 2900 mark, but fell below the important mark on a rumour that the Securities and Exchange Board of India likely to announce some restrictions on the short sale in its meeting.

Reflecting the uptrend, the 30-scrip BSE Sensex opened at 2831.27 points, touched the day's high of 2909.43 points, fell below the 2800 mark to touch the day's low of 2799.00 points and finally ended at 2890.72 points, showing a net gain of 58.69 points from the previous close of 2832.03 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index advanced by 24.47 points to 1290.13 from the previous close of 1265.66 points.

The BSE market also behaved indifferently to trends in world markets today.

In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei index fell sharply by 172.06 points at 13070.73 points, the Hang Seng index at Hong Kong also dropped by 168.82 points at 8840.01 points, the FTSE also recorded a 52-point fall immediately after the opening, market sources said.

Back home, the BSE-200 and Dollex indices eased by 4.57 and 1.83 points at 300.76 and 118.27 points from the previous close of 296.19 and 116.44 points.

Among the issues, Bajaj Auto shot up by Rs 35.72 to Rs 526.50, BHEL rose by Rs 14 to Rs 232, BSES Rs 2.60 to Rs 157, Castrol Rs 17.50 to Rs 591, Colgate Rs 2.10 to Rs 172.20, Dr Reddy's by Rs 19 to Rs 476, Glaxo Rs 5.76 to Rs 454, Grasim Rs 4.40 to Rs 149.30, Hero Honda Rs 15 to Rs 580, Hindalco Rs 12 to Rs 520, India Hotels Rs 3.25 to Rs 400.25, ITC Limited earned Rs 37 to Rs 703, L&T Rs 4 to Rs 158, M&M Rs 8.70 to Rs 156, MTNL Rs 4.10 to Rs 193.10, NIIT Rs 24.75 to Rs 1241.75, Pentafour Software Rs 40.25 to Rs 646, Ranbaxy Rs 4.75 to Rs 538, Reliance Rs 5 to Rs 109, Satyam Computers gained by Rs 36.50 to Rs 572.25, SBI Rs 11.80 to Rs 167.40 and Zee Telefilms Rs 12.70 to Rs 626.25.

Total turnover on the screen-based trading system of the BSE stood at Rs 13.04 billion.

Satyam Computers topped the list by registering highest turnover of Rs 2.50 billion, followed by ITC Rs 2.11 billion, Zee Telefilms Rs 1.12 billion, SBI Rs 1.06 billion and Pentafour Software Rs 952.8 million.

Other actively traded counters were Reliance (Rs 763.1 million), Infosys Tech (Rs 566.7 million), BHEL (Rs 320.4 million), Castrol India (Rs 218.8 million), Dr Reddy's (Rs 198.4 million), Bajaj Auto (Rs 162.4 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 154 million), NIIT (Rs 150.6 million), Telco (Rs 143.1 million) and Sterlite (Rs 139.6 million).

UNI