Agencies

Mumbai, Oct 21: Buying in frontline stocks on renewed bullish sentiments pushed indices to the day’s high but Tier II stocks underperformed. All the sectoral indices were in the green.

Fresh spell of buying by funds and retail investors, sparked by RBI's move to cut short-term lending rate, Repo, by 100 basis points amid positive cues from global markets led to the surge.

At 2 pm, Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was at 10,732.26 up 509.17 points or 4.98 per cent. The index touched a new intra-day high of 10744.39 and a low of 10250.23.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was 3.39 per cent or 105.75 points up at 3,228.55. The broader index touched a high of 3,251.55 and a low of 3,117.35.

Market experts said trading sentiments were buoyed following monetary measures initiated by the Reserve Bank of India are expected to improve liquidity in the financial market and lower borrowing costs for corporates.

The RBI yesterday announced a 100 basis points cut in repo rate for the first time in over four years apart from 250 basis points cut in the CRR earlier.

BSE Midcap Index was up 1.93 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index gained 1.34 per cent.

Jaiprakash Associates (12.56%), TCS (10.37%), Reliance Communications (10.15%), Tata Power (9.80%), Satyam Computers (9.33%) and Tata Steel (8.22%) were the major Sensex gainers.

Mahindra & Mahindra (-3.91%), Hindalco (-3.36%) and ONGC (-1.26%) were the top losers.

Jaiprakash Associates has decided to raise Rs 1,800 crore through the rights issue to meet the company's requirements of funds for its capital expenditure and other general corporate purposes including investments, instead of issuing further warrants to the promoters on preferential basis. Promoters have given a firm commitment to subscribe for the unsubscribed portion, if any, of the said rights issue.

The company has posted a net profit of Rs 203.13 crore for the quarter ended September, up 95.32 per cent against Rs 104 crore for the quarter ended September 2007. Net sales increased 37.19 per cent to Rs 1182.60 crore in Jul-Sep quarter of 2008 compared with Rs 862 crore in the same quarter of previous year.

Market breadth on BSE showed 1522 advances against 900 declines.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Monday that another wave of government spending may be needed as the US economy limps through what could be an extended period of subpar growth. The US government sent out about $100 billion in tax rebates over the summer to try to jumpstart the economy, but consumer spending has been sluggish since then.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 413.21 points, or 4.67 percent, to end at 9,265.43. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 44.83 points, or 4.77 per cent, to finish at 985.37. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 58.74 points, or 3.43 per cent, to close at 1,770.03.

Asian markets advanced on optimism the U.S. and Japan will expand efforts to stimulate the economy. The Nikkei climbed 2 per cent, the broader Topix rose 2.48 per cent, Hang Seng added 0.66 per cent and Straits Times gained 1.03 per cent.