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BSE conquers Kargil fear with low badla, frenzied buying; Sensex up 192 points (5.10 pc) to 3963.56

Encouraged by continous support from foreign institutional investors, the operators have discounted the Kargil issue on the opening day of the new settlement today.

The 30-share benchmark index, the Sensex, soared 190 points or 5.10 per cent with frenzied buying support at several blue-chip counters.

The S&P CNX Nifty too posted a remarkable recovery of 50.80 points or 4.70 per cent at the National Stock Exchange today.

This is the first time in the last 12 months that the Sensex has reported the highest gain in a single trading session, exchange sources said.

It had recorded a 239.87 points gain on June 17, 1998 at the BSE.

Reflecting the bullish phase, the Sensex opened at 3835.33 which happens to be the day's low, broke the psychological barrier of 3900 points and touched the day's high of 3966.14 and closed at 3963.56 points, showing a net gain of 190.24 points from last Friday's close of 3773.32 points.

The Nifty at the NSE opened at 1098.00 points, touched the day's high of 1132.80 points, a low of 1097.85 points, before closing at 1132.30 points, showing a net gain of 50.80 points or 4.70 per cent from the previous close

According to leading stock brokers, today's rally was totally driven by operators and the FIIs were not seen much active due to a holiday in the United States.

Institutional support was seen in the counters led by BSES, Great Eastern Shipping, Hindustan Lever, ICICI, Infosys Technology, JK Industries, L&T, Morgan and Telco.

Several counters hit the upper limit of the circuit-filters on account of smart surge in their share prices, dealers said.

The BSE Sensex has lost nearly 298 points in last week due to continous selling spree by operators and institutional investors due to the border tension.

A chief investment and research officer at the leading brokerage house said that marketmen have confined the border issue only up to Kargil and they don't think that it would emerge as an international crisis.

It is also surprising that the market has gone up steadily despite the prime minister's statement this morning that the situation in Kargil is war-like.

Dealers however were not sure whether today's rally can sustained over the week.

Others said that the punters who remained away from the market when the FIIs made considerable purchases last fortnight despite the border tension, have realised the Kargil problem is not so grave as it is made out. Hence they switched over to the buying mode today.

The securities that hit the upward circuit filters were Glaxo, Ashok Leyland, Nilkamal Plastics, Century Enka, Global Trust, Kesoram, Bombay Dyeing, Raymond. The counters showed smart gains were ACC, Reliance, ITC, SBI, Tata Tea, Global Telesystems, Digital, BPL and Hindustan Ink.

UNI

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