Sensex ends up
Mumbai: The stock markets opened higher at 5,970 and after a moving up declined to an intra-day low of 5,949 and showed signs of mild weakness in early deals on steady sell-off by Reliance, ONGC and Hindalco.

However, buying in technology stocks saw the index return to positive zone. Infosys gained after it announced an initial $8 million joint investment with Microsoft to develop products that would help businesses reduce technology costs.

Receding crude oil prices weighed on energy firms such as state- run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and private sector petrochemicals giant Reliance.

There was great buying interest in automobile stocks on news that oil companies dropped retail prices of petrol on Monday, following the drop in crude oil price.

The index zoomed past the 6,000-mark towards the closing bell to touch an intra-day high of 6,002 — up 53 points from the intra-day low.

The sensex finally closed at 5,997. The Nifty moved in a range of 1,881-1,863 before settling six points higher at 1,879.

While 16 sensex stocks advanced, 13 declined and one was unchanged today. Advancing shares registered a volume of 0.96 crore for Rs430.76 crore, and declining shares accounted for a volume of 0.42 crore amounting to Rs223.65 crore.

Infosys rallied 1.2 per cent (Rs23) to Rs2,049. Satyam was up 2.2 per cent (Rs 9) to Rs414, and Wipro was up 2 per cent (Rs14) to Rs707.

HLL was up 1.2 per cent (Rs2) to Rs136, and Reliance finished flat at Rs545. ITC was down a rupee at Rs1,148.

ONGC plunged 2.5 per cent (Rs20) to Rs796. HPCL soared 2.4 per cent (Rs 8) to Rs355.

HDFC Bank was up 3.3 per cent (Rs 16) to Rs484, and SBI surged 2.6 per cent (Rs 13) to Rs505. ICICI Bank advanced 1.5 per cent (Rs 5) to Rs320.

Ranbaxy slipped 2.2 per cent (Rs25) to Rs 1,072. Cipla was down a rupee at Rs278, and Dr.Reddy's dropped Rs2 to Rs774.

Auto stocks Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors zoomed 2.7 per cent and 2.4 per cent to Rs1,020 and Rs440, respectively. Maruti was up 2 per cent (Rs8) to Rs389, and Hero Honda gained Rs3 at Rs441. Bharti Tele declined Rs2 to Rs162.
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Telecom companies planning public offerings
Mumbai: A number of telecom companies in India are likely to come out with initial public offering over the next 18 months. Sources indicate that the total size of the offerings from these majors could be upwards of Rs6,000 crore.

The first initial public offering will be from Hutch, which is expected to be about Rs2,000 crore as the company has got the nod -ahead from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for the consolidation of its various telecom entities in India.

Another offering is expected from Idea Cellular, Reliance Infocomm and one from the Tata stable - Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL).

Analysts tracking the sector say that domestic telecom companies will have to raise huge sums of money for expansion and IPOs seem to be the way to go about it, they say.
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