10:30AM Reliance Industries leads the Sensex 71 points up, above 13,000 level.
The Sensex on BSE finished 71.14 points, or 0.5% higher, on Wednesday to settle at 13,033.04. The market breadth was almost even. For 1,269 shares that advanced on BSE, 1,245 declined and 76 shares were unchanged. From the 30-Sensex stocks 17 advanced while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,092 crore compared to Rs 4,410 crore on Tuesday. The turnover on NSE was Rs 7,754.12 crore.

Economic news

The central bank of India may raise its overnight borrowing rate to a five-year high as mounting consumer demand threatens to outstrip the production capacity of the companies and stoke inflation. The Reserve Bank of India may lift the reverse repurchase rate by a quarter point to 6.25% either on or before the central bank next monetary policy announcement on Jan. 30.

Most active stocks

Reliance Industries was the most active stock with a turnover of Rs 292 crore followed by Mcdowell, Tech Mahindra, Hindustan Zinc and Alstom Projects.

Advancers

Index heavy Reliance Industries led the rally in Sensex today. Reliance Industries gained 3.2% to Rs 1,266. The stock struck a high of Rs 1,268 which is an all-time high. Reliance Industries surged on reports it will invest $5.2-billion to double the output from its D6 block in Krishna Godavari basin to 80 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd). The company had earlier proposed investment of $2.47 billion to produce 40 mmscmd from discoveries - Dhirubhai 1 and 3 (in the D6 block) - out of a total 34 wells.

Cellular service providers advanced on hopes of jump in new subscriptions for the month just gone by. Bharti Airtel gained 2.4% to Rs 543.30 and Reliance Communications added 2.8% to Rs 389.65.

Cement stocks were also in focus. Gujarat Ambuja Cements added 2% to Rs 119.60, ACC gained 1.5% to Rs 983 and Grasim edged higher 0.8% to Rs 2,770 on reports cement manufacturers have lifted cement prices by Rs 5 per 50 kg bag in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Manwhile, Gujarat Ambuja today posted 6% growth in cement shipments for the month just gone by.

Hindustan Lever also gained 1.1% to Rs 236.25 building up on gains during the previous day after it reported a 17.5% rise in quarterly earnings. Power equipment large-cap BHEL rose 2% to Rs 2,463. Last week, BHEL posted sharply higher net profit for second-quarter, September 2006 which however was did not meet market expectations. The company is sitting on a robust order book position.

BPCL was up 2.5% to Rs 410.80 after the quarterly net profit of the state-run oil refining and marketing company rose sharply. Engineering & construction large-cap L&T advanced 1.3% to Rs 1,330. Infosys was up Rs 9 at Rs 2,104.

Some banks also surged. Recently listed Development Credit Bank soared almost 10% to Rs 46.25 on a high volume of lakh shares. State Bank of India gained 2.3% to Rs 1,121.

Carmakers ended mixed. Hero Honda gained 1.2% to Rs 765. Honda Motors said on Wednesday it sold 3,63,480 units in October 2006, up 20.4% from 3,02,012 in the same month last year.

Decliners

Auto large-cap Maruti Udyog finished flat at Rs 968.25. Maruti Udyog announced on Wednesday it sold 60,163 vehicles in October, up 16.7% from 51,543 units in the same month last year. Bajaj Auto shed 0.2% to Rs 2,744. The company stated on Wednesday its total vehicle sales in October 2006 advanced 15.6% to 2,79,578 units from 2,41,808 units a year earlier.

HDFC led the decliners slipping nearly 3% to Rs 1,428. ONGC was down Rs 12 to end at Rs 804. JSW Steel lost 2.2% to Rs 332. The company reported on Wednesday it had raised prices of galvanised steel by Rs 1,000 a tonne from Nov 1., because of a sharp rise in zinc prices in international markets.

Tata Steel Ltd. shares ended 0.1% lower at Rs 489.95. The top steel maker of India on Wednesday denied a newspaper report that it may make a bid for Companhia Siderurgica Nacional of Brazil.

Other news

The manufacturing sector of India grew in October at its fastest pace since a purchasing managers survey was introduced in April 2005, indicating recent monetary tightening has done little to dampen demand in the economy.

Cairn Energy, UK today announced it will raise at least $1.8 billion from the proposed initial public offering of its Indian operations in December.