Sensex zooms; crosses 6,900
Mumbai: The 30-share Sensitive Index (sensex) of The Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE) soared for the fifth consecutive day and set yet another record closing above 6,900 for the first time. The sensex gained 36.11 points on Tuesday to close at 6,915.09 after hitting an all-time high of 6929.59 intra-day.

Sectoral stocks like banking, metal and cement saw a huge amount of buying.

The total market capitalisation (M-cap) of BSE was higher by 0.66 per cent from Rs16,74,921 crore on Monday to Rs16,85,943.5 crore on Tuesday.

The M-cap of the Sensex moved up 0.34 per cent from Rs7,51,555.5 crore on March 7 to Rs7,54,095.81 crore on March 8.

The broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also touched a high of 2,173.85, before closing at 2,168.95, up 8.85 points.

1,358 stocks advanced while 1,076 declined. Total turnover on BSE and NSE was pegged at Rs2,785.67 crore and Rs5,911.02 crore, respectively.

The Sensex opened at 6,885.73, against Monday's close of 6,878.98 and some amount of profit-booking was witnessed in the first hour of trading which dragged the index to an intra-day low of 6,872.72. However, buying in pharma and technology counters pulled the Sensex to an intra-day high of 6929.59.

Pharma stocks like Cipla, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Ranbaxy saw some buying interest and moved up between 3 and 4 per cent each. The BSE Health Care index outperformed other sectoral indices gaining 40.15 points (1.51 percent) at 2,705.31.

The oil and gas index hit a lifetime high of 3,310.08, before ending up 0.75 per cent at 3,304.31 points. Reliance Industries, with a weightage of 49.09 per cent in the index hit a 52-week high of Rs598, and closed 0.85 per cent higher at Rs590.50. ONGC, with a 21.10 per cent weightage in the index, closed up 0.07 per cent at Rs902.50, even as crude prices inched closer to $54 a barrel. Earlier, ONGC announced that it would hold a 49 per cent stake in an oil block in Venezuela. The company will also enter the retail LPG market from fiscal 2005-06.

Tisco, Hindalco and Nalco helped the BSE Metal index touch a lifetime high of 6,938.64. It closed 1.18 per cent higher at 6,025.18.

BSE Bankex scaled another lifetime high, at 4,175.51 and although heavyweights SBI and ICICI Bank closed in the red, the index ended 0.77 per cent higher at 4,152.12.

The BSE 500 and BSE 200 indices also hit their lifetime highs of 2,930.49 and 929.93 points respectively, as major constituents of both the indices ONGC, RIL, Infosys, HLL and ITC, among others closed with gains.

The BSE TECk index recorded a 52-week high at 1,803.44 points helped up by gains in technology stocks, which performed well on the back of a strong Nasdaq rally.

Infosys, TCS, Satyam Computers and other tech shares ended significantly higher. The BSE 100 index also zoomed to a 52-week high of 3,739.42 points before ending up 0.64 per cent at 3,732.81 points.
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PNB's public issue oversubscribed
Mumbai: Punjab National Bank's (PNB) second public offering was oversubscribed twice over within minutes of its opening on Monday.

Bankers informed that against the offer of eight crore shares, bids were received from investors for over 16 crores in a few minutes of its first day.

The bidding for the 100 per cent book built issue with a price band of Rs 350-390 per share is closing on March 11.

PNB has reserved 10 per cent or 80 lakh shares of the shares offered for existing small shareholders and an equivalent proportion for employees.

The remaining 6.4 crore shares have been offered to the public.

A minimum 35 per cent of the net offering has been reserved for retail individual investors who can bid for equity shares up to
Rs1 lakh in value.

Qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) can bid up to 50 per cent of the net offering whereas a minimum 15 per cent has been reserved for non-institutional bidders.

After the IPO the government's holding in the bank would come down to 57 per cent from the present 80 per cent and would improve its capital base to meet the stringent Basel-II norms and increased business requirements.
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Oriental Bank to offer shares at a discount
Mumbai: The Oriental Bank of Commerce is likely to price its forthcoming share issue in a band of Rs275 to Rs300 ($6.30-$6.88) each, a discount of up to a fifth to its market price, according to the chairman of the bank.

Chairman and managing director of OBC, B D Narang, said the bank would offer 58 million shares with a face value of Rs10, to raise up to 17.40 billion rupees ($399 million) if priced at the higher end of the range.

Oriental Bank shares traded at Rs347.90 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday afternoon, which translates to a discount of as much as 21 per cent.

The bank would make its filing with the Securities and Exchange Board of India this week and the issue is slated to open in April. The issue would dilute the government's stake in the bank to about 53 percent from 68 per cent.

The issue will be managed by DSP Merrill Lynch, ICICI Securities and other merchant bankers.
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