Market remains firm

The market held firm in the afternoon trade. ICICI Bank moved higher. Banking and realty index moved up. However, the breadth was negative despite the market surge and the volumes were low.

Stocks rose in Asia today, 25 January 2008, buoyed up by several factors including strong corporate sentiment in Germany and a return of some confidence in the US economy after solid employment data and a congressional fiscal package. The Bush administration's fiscal package includes $150 billion of tax rebates and business incentives meant to prevent a slowdown in the country's economy.

India's wholesale price index rose 3.83% in the 12 months to 12 January 2008 marginally higher than the previous week's rise of 3.79%, government data showed on Friday, 25 January 2008. The annual inflation rate was 6.15% during the corresponding week of the previous year.

Meanwhile, all-India bank strike has prompted stock exchanges, BSE and NSE, to cancel clearing and settlement of trades, scheduled to be held today. Settlement of trades done on Wednesday, 23 January 2008, will be now done on Monday, 28 January 2008.

At 13:20 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 864.23 points or 5.01% to 18088.29. Sensex hit a high of 18,148.17 in early afternoon trade. At the day's high, Sensex rose 926.43 points.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 2877 crore.

The broader CNX S&P Nifty was up 259.60 points or 5.16% to 5293.05.

The market breadth was negative. On BSE, 1197 shares advanced as compared to 1417 that declined. 28 remained unchanged.

India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 2.92% to Rs 2563.35.

Among the Sensex gainers, Reliance Energy surged 9.81% to Rs 1994.20, ICICI Bank soared 9.46% to Rs 1240, ONGC flared up 8.87% to Rs 1028, HDFC Bank jumped 8.14% to Rs 1627.20, Ranbaxy Laboratories climbed 8.13% to Rs 375, Mahindra & Mahindra moved up 6.16% to Rs 664.20 and Bharat heavy Electricals rose 6.04% to Rs 2222.15.

Among the volume toppers on BSE, Ispat Industries rose 3.39% to Rs 44.20 on volume of 74.52 lakh shares. Indusind Bank soared 7.15% to Rs 92.90 on volume of 68.55 lakh shares. GMR Infrastructure jumped 7.46% to Rs 175.05 on volume of 68.08 lakh shares. Reliance Natural Resources climbed 4.10% to Rs 136.95 on volume of 63.56 lakh shares. Reliance Petroleum flared up 3.53% to Rs 167 on vulume of 47.30 lakh shares.

In Asia, key indices in Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan were up by 1.77% to 6.13%.

The US stocks finished higher overnight after the Bush administration and lawmakers announced details of an economic stimulus plan aimed at stemming mortgage market losses. Dow closed up 108.44 points or 0.88% at 12,378.61, the Nasdaq climbed 44.51 points or 1.92% to 2,360.92 and the S&P 500 added 13.47 points or 1.01% to 1,352.07.

As per provisional data, FIIs sold shares worth a net Rs 2254.93 crore on Thursday, 24 January 2008, the day when Sensex had lost 372 points. Domestic funds bought shares worth a net Rs 1117.03 crore on that day.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers to the tune of Rs 2,541.52 crore in the futures & options segment on Thursday. According to data released by the NSE, FIIs were net buyers of index futures to the tune of Rs 341.18 crore and sold index options worth Rs 67.35 crore. They were net buyers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 2,270.27 crore and sold stock options worth Rs 2.58 crore.

Crude oil prices rose in Asian trade Friday as stock markets around the world firmed, China revealed strong growth and on expectations that OPEC will not increase crude output next week. In Asian deals Thursday, crude was trading at $89.77 a barrel. Light, sweet crude for March delivery jumped $2.42 to settle at $89.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday.