The market extended gains in the early afternoon trade after IT bellwether Infosys gave a confident medium-term outlook and said it has decided to increase the dividend payout ratio to up to 30% of net profits from the current year from 20% thus far.
Healthcare and PSU stocks moved higher. Ranbaxy Laboratories was the top gainer from the Sensex pack.
Meanwhile, Asian markets, which exhibited mixed trend earlier, recovered slightly. Key indices in Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan were up 0.36% to 0.57%. However, indices in South Korea, Hong Kong and China were down 0.26% to 0.87%.
At 12:20 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 88.28 points or 0.56% at 15,895.92. The index gained 92.96 points at session’s high of 15,844.21 in early afternoon trade. The Sensex slipped 234.61 points at day’s low of 15,573.03, hit in early trade.
The S&P CNX Nifty was up 33.05 points or 0.69% at 4810.85.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.71% at 6,569.24 and the BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.90% at 8,153.95.
The market breadth was strong: on BSE, 1409 stocks gained, 964 stocks declined and 52 stocks were unchanged.
India’s largest drug maker by sales Ranbaxy Laboratories surged 7.33% to Rs 476.30 after Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca reportedly said on Tuesday, 15 April 2008 it had settled US patent litigation against Ranbaxy Laboratories over its top-selling drug, ulcer pill Nexium.
India’s second largest software exporter by sales Infosys Technologies rose 5.46% at Rs 1500.76 after the company reported 1.46% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 1249 crore on a 6.34% growth in revenue to Rs 4542 crore in Q4 March 2008 over Q3 December 2007.
India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries fell 0.54% at Rs 2538.
The BSE Healthcare index was up 1.81% at 3,990.08. Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals (up 8.03% at Rs 267.20), Piramal Healthcare (up 6.24% at Rs 327), Bilcare (up 4.67% at Rs 949), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 2.91% at Rs 518.45) and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (up 1.30% at Rs 598.70), moved up.
The BSE PSU index was up 1.04% at 7,521.85. MMTC (up 10% at Rs 26,847.80), Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (up 5% at Rs 60.45), Power Finance Corporation (up 4.15% at Rs 164.30), Neyveli Lignite Corporation (up 3.48% at Rs 132.15) and Chennai Petroleum (up 2.59% at Rs 327), flared up.
Bhagyanagar India, which makes non-ferrous metal products, surged 13.65% to Rs 44.55 after the company said it has scheduled a board meet on 22 April 2008 to consider buy back of equity shares.
Cement maker Grasim Industries slipped 0.49% to Rs 2538 even as the company said it has increased its stake from 25% to 45% in AV Cell Inc, a joint venture company in Canada for a total consideration of around Canadian dollar 6 million
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