Sensex gains 87 points

MUMBAI, February 26: Backed by fresh buying support from local and institutional operators, the 30-share BSE Sensitive Index continued its u...

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MUMBAI, February 26: Backed by fresh buying support from local and institutional operators, the 30-share BSE Sensitive Index continued its upward journey on Thursday, crossing the psychological barrier of 3,550 points to close at 3,571.63, a net gain of 86.94 points. The Nifty Index moved up by 9.75 points to close at 1,045.80 points.

The BSE Sensex opened at 3535.24, touched the day’s high of 3584.67, declined to the day’s low of 3526.35, before closing at 3571.63 as against the previous closing level of 3484.69. The BSE-100 index gained by 40.26 points to 1544.11 against the previous close of 1503.85. Brokers said that fresh buying was also due to short covering and in view of sharp gains witnessed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday.

Pivotals like Pond’ s, Glaxo, ACC, HPCL, BHEL and others index-based scrips showed good gain. Marketmen termed it as the `pre-election price rally’ and said operators generally build up long positions before the election results were announced. ITC entereda new trading zone at Rs 645. The stock touched a new 52-week high of Rs 649 before closing a shade lower at Rs 646. The turnover at the ITC was Rs 231.47 crore of the total volume of business on BSE of Rs 973.65 crore. Reliance gained Rs 3.60 at Rs 156.80, SBI Rs 2.40 at Rs 252.30, Telco Rs 11 at Rs 247.10 and Tata Steel Rs 3.40 at Rs 126.60 on speculative support.

On the Naitonal Stock Exchange, pivotals moved in a narrow range and ended with moderate gains on fresh buying support from institutional investors. The NSE-50 index opened at 1036.30, moved in the range of 1032.40 to 1048.55 and closed at 1045.80 showing a rise of 9.75 points over the previous close of 1036.05.