Sensex rises despite Bandh
Mumbai: The 18-hour bandh in Mumbai city called by the Shiv-Sena and the BJP was successful in that it brought all business and banking activities in Mumbai to a halt.

The bandh was called as a protest against the state government's "laxity" on security matters after a bomb explosion in a city bus on Monday killed two people and injured many others.

Surprisingly, stock markets remained unaffected and reported higher traded volumes than on the day before.

There was hardly any activity in the forex and money markets with the rupee changing little over yesterday's close. Banks were officially open but no one was manning the counters and customer transactions were negligible. The RBI also reported only about 40 per cent staff attendance.

Share brokers' offices wore a deserted look but brokers said trading at the stock markets was good. They said this was due to the fact that many people had started trading online and many transactions on the stock exchanges took place across the country on the net. Volume trading was high at close to 1,500 crore they said.

The Sensex, in fact, gained marginally, by 0.42 per cent, rising 15.98 points to close at 3,780.42.
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Trent stock rises
Mumbai: Trent Ltd's scrip, the Tata group's retailing arm, ended eight per cent higher on the stock exchange on rumours that an international retailer was picking up a stake in the company.

Brokers said that while rumnours have been doing the rounds for some time there was now reason to believe that there has been some concrete development on this front though it was at a nascent stage. They said there was talk that some Indian MNCs were looking at entering into a tie-up with the company, to market/distribute its products.
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ACC stock soars on expectations of cement price hike
Kolkata: The ACC stock on Wednesday stood at a new 52-week high on the major bourses due to hectic buying activity. The stock closed 6 per cent up at Rs 199 (Rs 187.60), after touching a day's high at Rs 200.50 on the Bombay stock exchange.

On the National stock exchange the scrip was traded at a record quantity of 48.18 lakh shares while it attracted a volume of 15.82 lakh shares (6.95 lakh shares) on the BSE.

Market sources say the scrip was pushed almost two times the average due to institutional buying, signifying increasing investment interest.

According to dealers, the market is expecting that cement manufacturers would shortly hike prices. There is also optimism of higher cement demand due to the several infrastructure projects now underway and the housing boom.

The ACC stock was trading at a price-earning multiple of 32.78 of 2002-03 earnings per share of Rs 6.07.

After posting a robust 122 per cent growth in the net profit, the annualised EPS stood at Rs 10.31 at the end Q1 of 2003-04.
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Matsushita Tele board agrees to pref allotment
New Delhi: Matsushita Television and Audio India Ltd has in notice to Bombay stock exchange said its board of directors have approved a decision to allot 5 per cent non-cumulative redeemable preference share capital of Rs 39 crore to Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Ltd, Japan, subject to approval of the shareholders.
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