Sensex soars 727 points on strong FII inflow

The market rallied further last week with the barometer index BSE crossing 17,000 mark and Nifty 5,000 level as investors bet on another cut in interest rate by the US Federal Reserve next month after data showed sluggish housing sales and consumer confidence in the US. Strong foreign institutional investor (FII) buying boosted bourses. Sensex moved up in all the five trading sessions in the week.

BSE Sensex rose 726.87 points or 4.39% to 17,291.10 in the week ended Friday, 28 September 2007. Sensex hit an all time high of 17,361.47 on Friday.

The S&P CNX Nifty rose 183.8 points or 3.79% at 5,021.35 in the week. It hit an all time high of 5,055.80 on Friday.

BSE Mid Cap rose 222.51 or 3.09% to 7,422.43 in the week. The BSE Small Cap index rose 204.63 points or 2.3% to 9,099.93 in the week. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

Sensex hit 17,000 on Wednesday, 26 September 2007. It took just 5 trading sessions for the Sensex to reach 17,000 from 16,000 after the barometer index first struck 16,000 on 19 September 2007. The Sensex’s 1,000-point surge was the fastest ever. The previous record for the shortest 1,000-point journey was 19 days when the Sensex soared from 11,000 to 12,000 in March 2006.

Sectoral indices, BSE Realty index (down 0.05% to 9,178.53), BSE Auto Index (up 2.67% at 5,332.26), BSE Capital Goods Index (up 1.1% at 14,679.84), BSE Oil and Gas Index (up 2.38% at 9,561.95), BSE TecK index (up 3.51% to 3,766), BSE Consumer Durables index (up 1.18% to 4,804.24), BSE FMCG Index (up 0.39% at 2,161.35) and BSE Health Care Index (up 3.56% at 3,784.21), underperformed the Sensex.

However BSE Bankex (up 8.35% at 9,469.26) and BSE IT Index (up 4.5% at 4,627.83), BSE PSU index (up 5.41% to 8,202.07), BSE Metal Index (up 8.84% at 13,945.39) outperformed the market in the week.

The BSE Sensex was up 281.60 points or 1.70% to 16,845.83 on Monday, 24 September 2007. The market kept on advancing as the day progressed on steady buying demand for index pivotals throughout the day, except for an hiccup in early trade. Turnover was healthy and it crossed Rs 7,500 crore on BSE. European markets which opened after Indian market, were mixed. Asian markets which opened before Indian market settled higher on that day.

Sensex gained 53.71 points or 0.32% at 16899.54 on Tuesday, 25 September 2007. Though the market ended in the green, the breadth was weak. The market recovered from lower level in late afternoon trade. Earlier, the market had slipped into the red in afternoon trade in contrast to a firm trend in mid-morning trade. European markets, which opened after Indian markets, were weak. Reliance Industries (RIL) hit all-time high in late trade.

The BSE Sensex was up 21.85 points or 0.13% at 16,921.39 on Wednesday, 26 September 2007. The market settled with small gains on selective buying in index pivotals. It opened higher as investors bet on another cut in interest rate by the US Federal Reserve next month after US data showed sluggish housing sales and consumer confidence. Asian and European markets were trading firm while US markets settled mixed overnight. IT, banking and refinery stocks surged whereas realty and oil & gas stocks witnessed selling pressure. Reliance group shares which had surged recently, eased on profit booking.

The Sensex up 229.17 points or 1.35% at 17,150.56 on Thursday, 27 September 2007.Market surged at the fag end of the trading session to touch new all time high, on short-covering ahead of expiry of September 2007 derivatives contracts. Domestic bourses rose as a part of rally across global markets as weak US economic data reinforced expectations for another interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve, following a steep half-point reduction to 4.75% last week.

The Sensex was up 140.54 points or 0.82% at 17,291.10 on Friday, 28 Seeptember 2007. Strong rollover from September 2007 futures to October 2007 futures boosted bourses today.

India’s top private sector utility company in terms of revenue Reliance Energy (REL) surged 19.40% to Rs 1205.50. The stock hit all-time high of Rs 1220 on 28 September 2007. As per reports, the government cleared the two transmission line projects of REL worth Rs 3,500-crore, projects which include the western region system strengthening (WRSS) II and the Parbati-Koldam hydro projects in Himachal Pradesh. These projects were delayed due to issues raised by the public-private partnership appraisal committee (PPAC).

National Thermal Power Corporation, the country’s largest power generation company by net sales jumped 3.17% to Rs 193.45 on 46.18 lakh shares. It replaced Dabur India in the S&P CNX Nifty index from Monday, 24 September 2007

India’s top small-car market by market share, Maruti Suzuki India galloped 7.53% to Rs 999.55. It hit an all time high of 1009 on 26 September 2007. Recently, Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) cleared Maruti's proposal to form a joint venture for setting up an exhaust parts manufacturing facility in Haryana with Japan's Futaba Industrial Company. Futaba will hold 51% in the venture.

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest listed cellular services provider by market share rose 2.49% to Rs 941.20. As per reports, it has got licence to start Direct-To-Home (DTH) services in the country and announced an investment of Rs 150 crores in the first phase to launch nation-wide operations, a move that would bring in much required competition in the DTH segment. Also another set of reports state that Bharti Airtel may get extra spectrum for Delhi and Mumbai under the existing subscriber-base norms.

India’s largest power equipment maker in terms of revenue Bhel gained 3.38% to Rs 2032.75. It hit lifetime high of Rs 2066. As per recent reports, Bhel it is looking at mergers and acquisition to fuel inorganic growth and it targeting a turnover of Rs 45,000 crore by 2012. Bhel, last week, won a Rs 765 crore turnkey order from Steel Authority of India (SAIL) to set up a 62.2 mega watt captive power plant in Burnpur, West Bengal.

India’s largest private sector entity by market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 0.96% to Rs 2296.20. RIL said on Saturday, 22 September 2007 that it has struck oil in the deepwater block KG-D4 located in the Krishna Basin. The commercial viability of the discovery is being evaluated. RIL holds 100% participating interest in this block, which spans over an area of 8100 sq. kms.

IT pivotals advanced after the Reserve Bank of India relaxed the norms for outbound investments by mutual funds and raised the limit for companies to prepay their external loans to tame appreciating rupee. India’s fourth largest software services exporter Satyam Computers soared 5.89% to Rs 443. Other IT pivotals Infosys (up 4.11% to Rs 1896.75), and TCS (up 4.12% to Rs 1056.75), also gained

Wipro, the nation’s third largest software services exporter jumped 4.54% to Rs 459.85 on reports that it has bagged a five-year, $130 million contract from British utility Thames Water. As per the agreement, Wipro will provide integrated IT services encompassing applications support, maintenance and infrastructure management services. It acquired Oki Techno Centre (Singapore) in an all cash deal. Oki Techno Centre (OTCS) is based in Singapore and is focused on wireless design in the areas of RF (radio frequency) and baseband design.

Tata Steel jumped 14.79% to Rs 850.35. It hit a 52 week high of Rs 868.10 on 28 September 2007.

State Bank Of India rose 7.88% to Rs 1950.70. It hit an all time high of 1969.80 on Friday.

ICICI Bank (up 10.15% to Rs 1063.15),Hindalco Industries (up 7.57% to Rs 172) were the other gainers from the Sensex pack.

The total number of telephone subscribers reached 241.02 million at end August 2007 compared with 232.87 million in July 2007. Tele-density, the number of people owning a telephone out of every 100 people, improved 21.2% in August 2007 from 20.52% in July 2007. The wireless segment base expanded by 8.31 million subscribers in August 2007 as against 8.06 million in July 2007. The total wireless subscribers - GSM, CDMA & WLL(F) - base touched 201.29 million end August 2007.

Net direct tax collections surged 40% to Rs 106095 crore from April 2007 to 21 September 2007 compared with Rs 75510 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. Corporation tax collections moved up 42.37% to Rs 67207 crore from April 2007 to 21 September 2007 as against Rs 47207 crore in the corresponding period in FY 2007.

The government is likely to issue oil bonds worth Rs 12000 crore to oil marketing companies by 15 October 2007 according Petroleum Secretary M S Srinivasan. Oil bonds are issued to oil marketing companies -- Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation - to partly compensate them for selling petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene at subsidised prices.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday (25 September 2007) raised ceilings on overseas investment by Indian companies and mutual funds in order to check the appreciating rupee and move towards fuller convertibility of the rupee in the capital account. As per the measures announced by the RBI, individuals can now remit up to $200000 against $100000 without RBI's permission. Companies are permitted to invest up to 400% of their net worth overseas as against 300% till now.

The Congress party appointed Rahul Gandhi as the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Monday (24 September 2007) in a reshuffle of the party secretariat. Rahul Gandhi is now responsible of AICC's two youth wings — the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and the Youth Congress.

India's consumption of fuel gained 3.5% in August 2007. Demand for petroleum products touched 9.43 million tonne (mt) in August 2007 compared with 9.11 mt in August 2006. Consumption of liquid petroleum gas (LPG), petrol and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) consistently witnessed a double-digit growth. Demand for diesel edged up 5.7% in August 2007.

The Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on Wednesday, 26 September 2007, issued notices to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and mobile operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea over recent tariff increases. TDSAT asked Trai and the three operators to file their replies within a week.

Annual inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI) has further fallen to 3.23% in the week ended 15 Setember 2007 from 3.32% in the week ended 3.32% in the week ended 8 September 2007. The market estimate stood at 3.47% in the week ended 15 September 2007. Inflation was at 5.27% in the corresponding week last. The fall in inflation is driven by decline in prices of fruits and vegetables, eggs, fish-marine and pulses.

A report realeased by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Yes Bank on Thursday (27 September 2007) has estimated India's rural retail market to grow 29% to Rs 1.8 trillion by 2010 driven by rising rural incomes and changing consumption patterns. Rural retail includes fast moving consumer goods, durables, agricultural inputs and autos like tractors.