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Budget bail-out news cheers up bourses; Sensex recovers 124 points, 3451.43

The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex zoomed by 124 points as pivotals staged a remarkable recovery today as the political parties decided to pass the 1999-2000 Budget on Wednesday without debate.

Pivotals reported a handsome recovery with several index-based scrips closing higher on good buying support from local operators and institutional investors. The infotech and pharma scrips witnessed a mixed trend, while fast moving consumer goods stocks were in the limelight,dealers said.

The market had suffered a massive setback on Saturday. Today, the Sensex opened on a cautious note at 3331.71, marginally higher from the previous close of 3326.98.

Then, it skyrocketted over 140 points, crossing the psychological barrier of 3400 points and touching the day's high of 3468.05 points.

Later, the Sensex fell below the 3400 mark, touching the day's low of 3320.62 before closing at 3451.43. In all, it recorded a net gain of 124.45 points from the previous close.

The S&P CNX Nifty Index at the National Stock Exchange also gained by 26.95 points to 993.90 points from the previous close of 966.95 points.

With the smooth passage of Budget imminent, the market is expected to react positively, a leading bse broker said.

The broad-based BSE-100 index shot up by 51.36 points to 1495.92 points as against the previous close of 1444.56 points.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices rose by 11.34 and 4.13 points to 342.13 and 132.93 points from the previous close of 330.79 and 128.80 points respectively.

The scrips which posted 7-8 per cent gains were ACC, Global Telesystems, Digital Equipment, Hindustan Ink, Zee Telesystems, BPL, Ranbaxy.

Commenting on the uptrend, analysts said that the market is likely to open higher tomorrow on expectations of possible cut in the interest rates and cash reserve ratio by the Reserve Bank of India governor Dr Bimal Jalan tomorrow in Credit Policy. However, being the last day of settlement at the NSE, the market may react on squaring up positions by big players, they added.

Total turnover on the BOLT system reported during the day was Rs 13.05 advance.

Pentafour Software topped the list of turnover by registering highest turnover of Rs 2.07 billion, Satyam Computer Rs 1.57 billion and ITC Rs 1.40 billion.

The other actively traded counters were Ranbaxy (Rs 969.4 million), Reliance (Rs 760.9 million), Zee Telefilms (Rs 429.4 million), SBI (Rs 408.2 million), ACC (Rs 342.5 million), Digital Equipment (Rs 287.4 million), Infosys Technologies (Rs 279.3 million), Tata Tea (Rs 259.6 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 257.2 million), MTNL (Rs 204.9 million), Glaxo India (Rs 203.1 million) and Dr Reddy's (Rs 169.7 million).

UNI

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