Market opens on a firm note as political worries ease

The market opened on a firm note as political worries receded with Samajwadi Party (SP), a regional party, on making it clear during the week end that it will support the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), at a time when Left parties are on the verge of withdrawing support. All the sectoral indices on BSE, except the oil & gas index, were in green.

The Left front has set 7 July 2008 as deadline for the government to let them know whether it intends to approach the International Atomic Energy Agency to seal the India-specific safeguards agreement.

Asian markets which opened before Indian market, edged higher. The key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan were up by 0.18% to 3.98%. US stock markets were closed for the Independence Day holiday on Friday, 4 July 2008.

At 10:20 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 286.54 points or 2.13% at 13,740.54. At the day’s high of 13,789.70, the Sensex gained 335.70 points in early trade.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty was up 92.75 points or 1.96% at 4016.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 2.29% at 5,399.06, while the BSE Small-Cap index was up 2.22% at 6,593.01.

The market breadth was strong on BSE, with 1311 gainers outpacing 328 losers. 33 stocks remained unchanged.

India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose 0.94% at Rs 2118.80.

India's second largest software exporter by sales Infosys Technologies rose 3.17% at Rs 1810.

India’s largest private sector bank by market capitalization ICICI Bank rose 3.04% at Rs 618.90.

Reliance Infrastructure (7.30% at Rs 830), Jaiprakash Associates (up 6.26% at Rs 162.90), Bharat Heavy Electricals (up 4.78% at Rs 1572), DLF (down 3.82% at Rs 430), Larsen & Toubro (down 3.37% at Rs 2458.25) and State Bank of India (up 3.15% at Rs 1163), were the key gainers from the Sensex pack.

Telecom services provider Spice Communications was the top traded counter on BSE in terms of turnover. The stock rose 0.21% at Rs 73.10 on a turnover of Rs 2185.97 crore. Volumes in the stock were huge at 28.28 crore shares.

A block deal was struck for 28.24 crore shares of Spice Communications, amounting to 40.9% of equity, at Rs 74 each on the BSE today. Last month, Idea Cellular said it would buy 40.8% stake in Spice for Rs 2176 crore.

US light crude for August delivery traded at $143.92 a barrel and London Brent crude rose 23 cents to $144.65 a barrel. Crude oil hit a record $145.85 hit on 3 July 2008.

India's wholesale price index rose 11.63% in the 12 months to 21 June 2008, a 13-year high, and above previous week's annual rise of 11.42%, government data released on 4 July 2008 showed. Experts opine that the double-digit inflation is here to stay for some more time, but could trend down from September 2008.

As per provisional data, foreign funds bought shares worth a net Rs 372.35 crore while domestic mutual funds sold shares worth a net Rs 97.02 crore on Friday 4 July 2008.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers of Rs 120.10 crore in the futures & options segment on Friday, 4 July 2008. They were net sellers of index futures to the tune of Rs 215.54 crore and bought index options worth Rs 99.23 crore. They were net buyers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 221.21 crore and purchased stock options worth Rs 15.20 crore.

As per reports, India's monsoon has been 21% above average so far this season. A normal monsoon may lift farm production, which accounts for a fifth of the economy, and cool the nation's fastest inflation rate in 13 years.