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Sensex defies political uncertainty, gains 27 points, 2810.66

Political uncertainty in the capital following the drubbing received by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state assembly elections could not deter an upswing in the stock markets, with the Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange staging a modest rise of 27.56 points today.

The market opened weak on the first day of the current trading cycle due to nervousness among participants about the future of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government at the Centre.

Marketmen felt that a change in government or a mid-term poll at this juncture could spell economic priorities taking a backseat and a consequent bearish effect on the market.

Foreign institutional investors were passive onlookers, while domestic financial institutions-- Genral Insurance Company, Life Insurance Corporation and the Unit Trust of India bought sizable quantities of index-based scrips. Institutions bought ITC, Telco, Reliance and Satyam Computers, brokers said.

The BSE-30 Sensitive Index (Sensex) opened at 2771.69, witnessed a low of 2741.70 and closed at 2810.66, which happened to be the day's high also. The Sensex gained 27.56 points from the previous closing of 2783.10.

The BSE-100 index ended at 1254.10, gaining 11.77 points from the last closing of 1242.33.

The BSE-200 index ended at 291.54, rising 2.51 points from the previous closing of 289.03.

The Dollex index ended at 113.86, adding 0.69 points from the last closing of 113.17.

The total turnover on the BOLT network was Rs 10.63 billion from trading in 41.7 million shares.

Satyam Computers topped the turnover list with Rs 2.51 billion followed by ITC (Rs 2.25 billion), SBI (Rs 711.3 million), Zee Telefilms (Rs 665.9 million) and Pentafour (Rs 512.5 million).

Other actively traded scrips were Reliance, Telco, Tata Tea, Castrol, ACC, Raymond, HLL, Glaxo India, BHEL and Infosys Technologies. UNI

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