Techs in favour on Dalal St

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex hit a high of 5200.85 in intra-day trades before finally closing at 5170.32 points, up 0.97 per cent (49.87 points).

Technology company scrips were in focus, with the market enthused by the good response to the Tata Consultancy Services IPO. The BSE TECk index was the biggest gainer on Friday, up 1.06 per cent and the BSE IT sector index gained 1.04 per cent.

Blue-chips were the focus of attention too. Brokers said that short-covering in blue chips helped the market rise higher. Some 19 of the 30 scrips in the Sensex basket closed higher and gainers outpaced losers 10:8 on the BSE.

The smooth expiry of the July series futures contracts also added to the positive sentiment, brokers said. Vijay Saraf, coo, Centrum Finance, said, "The markets have moved up largely owing to short covering and may remain range bound in the near term."

Other factors that contributed to the uptick were the healthy quarterly results and optimism that the monsoons position will improve.

Satyam Computer rose 1.57 per cent to Rs 339, Infosys Technologies was up 1.31 per cent to Rs 1553.75 and Wipro was up 1.02 per cent to Rs 546.75.

Most market participants are rerating the entire tech sector and increasing their exposure to it.

Auto and cement scrips moved up on good buying support. Tata Motors was the biggest gainer in the Sensex basket, up 4.38 per cent to Rs 423.20, followed by the Hindalco scrip, up 3.40 per cent to Rs 1101.15.

Reliance Industries was up 3.07 per cent to Rs 488.90. Hero Honda Motors was up 2.72 per cent to Rs 428.90, Gujarat Ambuja Cements gained 2.66 per cent to Rs 278.15 and Tata Power was up 2.46 per cent to Rs 264.15. ACC gained 2.35 per cent to Rs 239.60 and Maruti Udyog was up 1.85 per cent to Rs 424.60.

Zee Telefilms was the biggest loser in the Sensex basket, down 2.09 per cent to Rs 140.45, followed by the HLL scrip, down 1.69 per cent to Rs 116.20. The price of the ITC scrip fell 1.06 per cent to Rs 1034.60 and the State Bank of India scrip was down 0.83 per cent to Rs 441.95.

Turnover was lower than Thursday's on the bourses; with the BSE reporting a turnover of Rs 2,010.73 crore in the cash segment and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) a turnover of Rs 4,700.32 crore.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) were net buyers of Indian shares worth Rs 162.20 crore on Thursday while domestic mutual funds were net sellers to the tune of Rs 94.30 crore.