IT, steel firms in pilot seat

STOCK REPORT

The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share Sensex on Monday ended above its psychological resistance level of 13000 on the back of strong gains in metal and bank shares. With Monday's rise, the Sensex and National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty have ended firm for the fourth straight session.

Firm trend in other Asian markets also kept the investor sentiment upbeat throughout the session.

However, the Sensex is likely to move in a range of 200-300 points until Friday, when IT bellwether Infosys Technologies will detail its January-March earnings, dealers said.

"Infosys' earnings for this quarter will be in line or may be slightly above estimates. Their earnings guidance for 2007-08 will be around 25 per cent," said Jayesh Gandhi, fund manager, Birla Sun Life Asset Management Co.

The Sensex ended at 13177.74, up 321.66 points, or 2.5 per cent from Thursday, after touching a low of 12904.85 and a high of 13194.00 intraday.

The Nifty closed at 3843.50, up 91.50 points or 2.4 per cent, after touching a low of 3747.25 and a high of 3850.90 during the session. All BSE sectoral indices ended with gains. The BSE Metal Index and the Bankex, up 3.3 per cent each, were major gainers.

Steel shares were top gainers on talk that prices of cold-rolled steel will be hiked by Rs 2,000-3,000 per tonne this week.

Tata Steel was top Nifty gainer, rising 6.4 per cent to Rs 495. SAIL surged 3 per cent to Rs 118, while JSW Steel rose 2.4 per cent to Rs 510.

Among the gainers, Reliance Communications was up 5 per cent at Rs 416, while ITC rose 4.8 per cent to Rs 155.

Telecom shares gained on value buying and speculation of strong additions to subscriber numbers. IT shares were up, as analysts have revised earnings projections of software companies, saying their profits may not be as down as projected earlier.

Infosys Technologies ended up 2.8 per cent at Rs 2,047.

Among the few laggards, Dabur India was down 1.7 per cent at Rs 92, Zee Entertainment was down 0.7 per cent at Rs 268, while National Aluminium was down marginally at Rs 233.