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Infosys cheers market; Sensex zooms 245 points

MUMBAI — The Bombay Stock Market surged in late trading building on the recovery from lower level which it had witnessed in mid-afternoon trade. The market had slipped into the red in afternoon trade from an early surge after the industrial production data for November 2007 fell short of market expectations. The data hit the market in early afternoon trade yesterday.

Reliance Industries (RIL) surged. IT stocks were mixed after Infosys posted better than expected Q3 December 2007 results before trading hours. Banking, Oil & gas and realty stocks gained. Capital goods and consumer durables stocks declined. The market breadth was weak. BSE Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices underperformed Sensex.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 245.37 points or 1.19 per cent to 20,827.45. It hit a high of 20,894.79 in the late trade. At day’s high Sensex gained 312.71 points. It hit a low of 20,505.81 in afternoon trade. At the day’s low Sensex lost 76.27 points.

IT stocks were mixed after Infosys announced its results yesterday. India’s second largest software exporter by sales Infosys Technologies declined 1.38 per cent to Rs1,580.10 after the company yesterday reported stronger-than-expected growth in net profit in Q3 December 2007. Infosys’ consolidated net profit as per Indian GAAP rose 11.9 per cent to Rs 1231 crore in Q3 December 2007 over Q2 September 2007. Sales rose 4 per cent to Rs4271 crore in Q3 December 2007 over Q2 September 2007.

Tata Consultancy Services rose 1.47 per cent to Rs989.05. India’s fourth largest IT exporter by sales Satyam Computer Services shed 2.24 per cent to Rs410.75.

Wipro declined 0.34 per cent at Rs485.95. The company on Thursday said its unit Wipro Infotech, had won a nine-year outsourcing contract Aircel Cellular.

BSE Oil & Gas stocks rose. Reliance Industries was up 3.34 per cent to Rs3,128.15. GAIL (India) (up 3.29 per cent to Rs506.10), ONGC (up 1.14 per cent to Rs1,306.90) and Reliance Petroleum (up 0.69 per cent to Rs219.75) edged higher.

Banking stocks spurted. ICICI Bank rose 6.13 per cent to Rs1,439.90. The stock rose for the second day in a row on reports the bank will list at least four arms starting with ICICI Securities in next six months though the board is yet to decide on securities arm listing.

HDFC Bank rose 2.47 per cent to Rs1,762.35. State Bank of India rose 1.19 per centto Rs2,437.25.

Realty stocks gained. Ansal Properties & Infrastructure (up 9.27 per cent to Rs386.70), Unitech (up 0.39 per cent to Rs519.55), DLF (up 4.71 per cent to Rs1,196.05).