Monday, July 3 2006 18:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The BSE benchmark index Sensex today (July 3, 2006) gained 86 points to end at 10,695.26 amid extremely low trading volumes, which was confined to frontline counters, marred by incessant rains here that led to sparse attendance of traders.

The gaining string was extended to a third straight session as bull operators continued to make commitments in the Cash as also the derivatives segment.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30-share sensitive index fluctuated in a range of 10,729.92 and 10,589.46 before ending the day at 10,695.26 from Friday's close of 10,609.25, a net rise of 86.01 points or 0.81 per cent.

The National Stock Exchange's (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty also shot up by 22.75 points or 0.73 per cent to 3,150.95 from previous close of 3,128.20.

The trading activity was adversely affected following disruption of transport services caused by heavy rains in the city for the third consecutive day.

The market sentiment, however, aided by a firm trend in Asian markets. The Nikkei today ended up by 66.44 points and the Hang Seng by 59.04 points.

The market also was well supported by the country's sound economic fundamentals and expectations of better than expected quarterly corporate earnings, to be announced in the middle of the month.

Foreign Institutional Investors' (FIIs) activity is also expected to be picked up in the Indian bourses only after the announcement of financial results.

The volume of business was extremely low at Rs 2,411.50 crore. RIL continued to be the top traded scrip and clocked highest turnover of Rs 222.54 crore followed by Reliance Comm (Rs 125.96 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 100.34 crore), HLL (Rs 83.74 crore) and REL Capital (Rs 77.48 crore).

The broad-based BSE-100 Index firmed up by 33.75 points to 5,415.86 from previous close of 5,382.11.



The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were quoted modestly up at 1,278.05 and 462.21 at close compared to last weekend's close of 1,271.02 and 459.60 respectively. The BSE-500 Index rose by 21.74 points to 4,051.71 from last close of 5,029.97and the Dollex-30 ended higher at 1,907.42 from 1,891.77.

RIL jumped by 12.25 to 1071, Infosys Tech by 74.50 to 3152.05, TCS Ltd by 64.20 to 1799.85, SBI by 14.90 to 742.30, Tata Steel by 8.90 to 542.20, Satyam Computer by 7.60 to 719, L&Tb by 19.90 to 2263, Bajaj Auto by 6.95 to 2743.80, HLL by 7.80 to 236.90, Dr Reddy's Lab by 11.15 to 1285.15, ICICI Bank by 1.45 to 488.85, ITC by 1.80 to 184.05, ONGC by 15.45 to 1123.50 and Reliance Communi 4.70 to 253.65.

However, Grasim dropped by 34.25 to 1899, BHEL by 5.40 to 1946.45, HDFC Bank by 12.65 to 778.50, Maruti Udyog by 5.30 to 792.30, Wipro by 12 to 501.75, ACC by 3.90 to 780, Cipla by 1.40 to 214.40, Hero Honda by 3.50 to 788 and Tata Motors by 8.35 to 786.10.