Sensex touches 4,700-mark; Nifty breaches 1,500 level
Mumbai: The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty breached the 1,500 level on Thursday to hit a 39-month high in a broad-based rally. Stocks gained almost across the board on expectations of strong half yearly earning numbers for the quarter ended 30 September 2003. Among the frontline stocks, IT bellwether Infosys will unveil its results on Friday.

On the Bombay Stock Exchange the 30-share Sensex also breached the 4,700-mark in afternoon trades but eventually closed with a gain of 63.82 points or 1.38 per cent to close at 4,698.68, its best close since 19 July 2000. The Sensex touched a high of 4,710.28 in intra-day trades on Thursday.
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Rupee up 11 paise
Mumbai: The rupee closed 11 paise stronger at 45.2650/27 per dollar, as against Wednesday's closing at 45.38/39, in a volatile forex market on Thursday. The domestic currency opened at 45.34 and fell to an intra-day low of 45.42, driven down by demand for the greenback emanating from banks who were scampering to cover their short-dollar positions. Following this, a bout of dollar selling by exporters buoyed the rupee back to its closing levels.
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UCO Bank share closes at Rs 19.60 on NSE
Mumbai: The stock of UCO Bank has debuted at a 43 per cent premium to its issue price of Rs 12. The UCO Bank share began trading at Rs 17.25 but steadily rose to touch Rs 20.45, before settling back to close at Rs 19.60 per share on the NSE, which was the designated exchange for the public issue. The UCO counter, which saw intense trading today, raked up a volume of 4.6 crore on the NSE and 2.1 crore shares on the BSE.

In terms of total traded value, it was one among the top 10 on the NSE. UCO's debut came on a day when the benchmark Sensex of the BSE rose 63.82 points to close with a gain of 1.38 per cent at 4698.68. The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the NSE rose nearly 1.6 per cent to close at 1502.10. Equities analysts say the UCO Bank issue was well timed.
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Big Bull estate auction: ACC suffers
Mumbai: The share price of cement maker ACC was beaten down on Thursday after it was widely reported that LIC was the sole bidder for the 10 per cent stake put on sale by the Custodian of deceased stockbroker Harshad Mehta's estate, say reports. The life insurer has offered a price between Rs 160 and Rs 165 per share for the 1.63-crore-share block. LIC already is the single largest shareholder in ACC with a 16.5 per cent equity ownership. The ACC stock tumbled nearly 3 per cent to Rs 206.95 on the NSE on Thursday in spite of it being a good day for cement stocks in general.

Dealers said there was an expectation of another round of industry-wide price hike. Grasim closed the day higher by 6.35 per cent at Rs 727.40 and Gujarat Ambuja closed up 1.52 per cent at Rs 246.35 on the NSE.
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Maruti stock cruises ahead
Mumbai: The stock of Maruti Udyog veered ahead on Thursday on hopes of some good news. The market grapevine was abuzz that Suzuki, which owns half of the company, is planning to source engines with a capacity of 1,000 cc and below from Maruti. It was also heard that an employees' strike at one of the company's vendors' facilities had affected the carmaker's production in the second quarter.

Now the strike is over and production is expected to be smooth, dealers said. Maruti's share closed the day at Rs 258.55, up 7.5 per cent from its previous close on the BSE. While about 31.08 lakh shares were traded on the exchange, the trading volume touched nearly 70 lakh on the NSE.
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UTI Money Market Fund announces dividend
Mumbai: UTI Money Market Fund has declared weekly dividend at Re 0.01 per unit on a face value of Rs 10. This works out to a tax-free annualised return of 5.33 per cent to the investors and 6.02 per cent annualised outflow for the scheme.

The record date for the dividend is October 11. UTI MMF is an open-end money market scheme, which seeks to provide the highest possible current income by investing in diversified portfolio of short-term money market securities. The NAV as on 8 October was Rs 17.10 per unit under income option and Rs 17.40 per unit under growth option.
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BSE to issue fresh membership cards
Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has decided to admit fresh members to the exchange. According to BSE officials, the exchange plans to issue 27 corporate memberships at Rs 65 lakh each. Already three companies have approached for membership. The exchange is expected to make an official announcement shortly.

The move to issue fresh membership is part of its corporatisation and demutulalisation drive. BSE members have already approved the proposal to move to the deposit-based system where after the demutualisation each member will have Rs 65 lakh as deposit and also get 10,000 shares of the BSE Ltd, the company to be named after corporatisation. This proposal is subject to Government approval, said BSE officials. Officials at the exchange said that the new members will have the same benefits as those enjoyed by the existing members.
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