Market cheers Reliance's global plan, up 158 points

Indian bourses rose to one-month highs as Reliance Industries leaped on its mega merger plan. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index today opened at 17,067.14 tracking positive global vibes.

The index exhibited firmness throughout the trading session on the back of continued buying at the Reliance counter. The scrip ended 3 per cent higher at Rs 2,195, after the company announced its bid to acquire bankrupt chemicals maker LyondellBasel Industries.

The BSE-benchmark touched an intra-day high of 17,214.58, and finally ended at 17,180.18, up 158.33 points or 0.93 per cent. The NSE Nifty settled at 5,103.55, up 51.10 points or 1 per cent.

Among the Sensex stocks, Tata Steel topped the list of gainers, up 4 per cent, followed by ITC (3.54 per cent) which hit a fresh 52-week high. ACC (2.97 per cent), ICICI Bank (2.18 per cent) and Sun Pharmaceuticals (2 per cent) were among the major gainers on the BSE.

Bharti Airtel slipped 4.48 per cent due to the raging price war between mobile operators. Jaiprakash Associates and Reliance Communications were some of the notable losers, down 1 per cent each.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 2,826 shares traded, 1,560 advanced, 1,178 declined and 88 were unchanged on the exchange.

Among the sectoral indices, the oil and gas index was the prominent gainer, up 2.65 per cent. It was followed by FMCG (2 per cent), metal (1.58 per cent) and healthcare indices (1.41 per cent).

Reliance Industries topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 274.54 crore, where as Cals Refineries led the volume chart with 47.94 million shares.

“Reliance Industries stole the show in the frontline stocks, along with some FMCG scrips such as Hindustan Unilever and ITC, which helped in the upward movement,” said Anita Gandhi, head, institutional sales, Arihant Capital Market.

Gandhi, however, feels that the undercurrent in the market is still strong.