The Hindu Business Line : Stocks give 99-pt salute to Survey, rail budget

THE stock market turned euphoric over the Railway Budget and the Economic Survey today, with stock prices rising across the board. In addition, there was some active buying by FIIs ahead of the Union Budget.

The market, which opened on an optimistic note, remained strong and as the reports on the railway budget and Survey came out, players turned bullish.

"The measures in the rail budget indicate that the Government is committed towards economic reforms and the decisions are not populist,'' said a dealer.

On BSE, the 30-share benchmark index (Sensex) soared by 99.23 points or by 2.75 per cent to close at 3712.74 and the S&P CNX Nifty closed higher by 23.95 points at 1189.40.

The top gainers in the market included Infosys, MTNL, HPCL and Dr Reddy's Laboratories. among others. There was an across-the-board buying in most PSU, steel and cement stocks.

The losers list included UTI Bank, ICICI bank, Ranbaxy Laboratories and Trigyn Technologies.

Dealers said that FIIs were particularly active in the technology sector stocks. "Today, there was extensive buying by FIIs in the tech counters. The sector seems to be bouncing back into favour with institutional investors,'' said a dealer.

Infosys Technologies gained Rs 103 or three per cent to close at Rs 3850.55 against a previous close of Rs 3747.55. Satyam (up by Rs 13.45 to close at Rs 293.75), Wipro (up by Rs17.5 to close at Rs 1662.85) and NIIT also followed suit with gains.

There was also active buying in a number of PSU stocks. There are expectations of some major announcement by the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, in the Budget on the disinvestment front. Some of the major PSU stocks in the gainers' list included - BPCL, HPCL, MTNL, Shipping Corporation, and SBI.

Increased buying in PSU stocks was also seen from the rise in the BSE PSU index which rose by 64.79 points (4.86 per cent). Significantly, the rise in the PSU index was much more that the rise in the benchmark index Sensex (up 2.75 per cent) indicating a positive sentiment for this sector.

Dealers said the mood in the market was bullish and this was expected to prevail till the Budget presentation on Thursday.

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Stocks give 99-pt salute to Survey, rail budget