Some small-cap, mid-cap stocks rally

The key benchmark indices extended gains to hit intra-day high in
early afternoon trade as Larsen & Toubro and ONGC surged ahead of
Q1 June 2008. Reliance Industries recovered. Banking stocks were
mixed ahead of monetary policy review by the central bank scheduled
tomorrow, 29 July 2008. Capital goods and realty stocks edged
higher. Asian markets, which opened before Indian market, were
mostly in green.

Crude oil edged higher after a sharp correction from record high
last week. US light crude for September delivery rose 46 cents to
$123.72 a barrel.

At 12:28 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 83.36 points or 0.58%
at 14,359.11. The index gained 128.71 points at day's high of
14,403.65 hit in early afternoon trade.

The market had opened lower dampened by serial blasts in Bangalore
and Ahmedabad, which rocked the nation late last week. Sensex lost
55.56 points at the day's low of 14,219.38, hit in early trade.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty rose 24.7 points or 0.57% at
4,336.55.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.96% to 5,626.03 and the BSE
Small-Cap index was up 1.7% to 6,893.74.

The market breadth was positive on BSE with 1,598 shares advancing
as compared to 699 that declined. 68 remained unchanged.

India's largest private sector firm by market capitalization and
oil refiner Reliance Industries slipped 0.24% to Rs 2,141.65. The
stock came off from the session's low of Rs 2,105.55. Earlier in
the day, the stock had extended a sharp fall witnessed on Friday,
25 July 2008, after its Q1 June 2008 results disappointed
investors.

From the mid-cap space, Gujarat Flurochemicals (up 10.49% to Rs
192.10), Coromandel Fertiliser and Chemicals (up 10% to Rs 170.05),
Mphasis (up 8.75% to Rs 211.90), Phoenix Mills (up 7.15% to Rs
177.70) and Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers (up 6.3% to Rs 70)
edged higher.

From the small-cap stocks, PNB Gilts (up 19.9% to Rs 22.90),
Himachal Futuristic Communications (up 15.4% to Rs 17.83), Gallantt
Metal (up 15.14% to Rs 23.95), FDC (up 13.26% to Rs 30.75) edged
higher.

From the A group stocks, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure (up 5%
to Rs 942.65) and Jai Corp (up 5% to 444.55) hit upper limit.

Capital Goods stocks rose. Larsen & Toubro (up 4.06% to Rs 2,738),
Bharat Heavy Electricals (up 2.85% to Rs 1,702.10) and Suzlon
Energy (up 2.88% to Rs 217.55) edged higher.

Realty stocks edged higher. Phoenix Mills (up 6.12% to Rs 176.10),
DLF (up 3.21% to Rs 506.50) and Unitech (up 2.36% to Rs 169.25)
edged higher.

Banking stocks were mixed ahead of Reserve Bank of India (RBI's)
monetary policy review scheduled tomorrow 29 July 2008. India's
largest private sector bank in terms of net profit ICICI Bank rose
0.84% to Rs 661. The bank's net profit declined 6% to Rs 728 crore
on 1.6% growth in total income to Rs 9429.98 crore in Q1 June 2008
over Q1 June 2007. Treasury losses and slower growth in advances
have taken a toll on ICICI Bank's profits for the first quarter of
the current financial year.

Axis Bank (down 0.08% to Rs 712) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (down
0.99% to Rs 553.55) edged lower.

India's largest commercial bank State Bank of India (SBI) rose
1.95% to Rs 1,477. The bank's net profit rose 15% to Rs 1640.79
crore on 32.4% growth in total income to Rs 16203.07 crore in Q1
June 2008 over Q1 June 2007.

India's largest FMCG major by sales Hindustan Unilever declined
0.09% to Rs 232. Net profit of Hindustan Unilever fell 0.06% to Rs
558.18 crore on 21.09% growth in sales to Rs 4215.67 crore in Q2
June 2008 over Q2 June 2007. The company announced the results at
the fag end of the trading session on Friday, 25 July 2008.

Sterlite Industries declined 3.21% to Rs 584 and Tata Power Company
rose 4.1% to Rs 1,058. Sterlite Industries and Tata Power Company
will replace Ambuja Cement and Cipla in Sensex from today, 28 July
2008. Cipla rose 0.53% to Rs 226.80.

Ambuja Cement rose 0.74% to Rs 82.70. Net profit of Ambuja Cements
declined 32.51% to Rs 577.02 crore on 8.20% growth in sales to Rs
1569.77 crore in the quarter ended June 2008 over the quarter ended
June 2007.

Reliance Infrastructure (up 3.08% to Rs 1,014.90), Ranbaxy
Laboratories (up 3.25% to Rs 496.90), Reliance Communications (up
2.51% to Rs 515.75), and ONGC (up 2.22% to Rs 1,004.80) edged
higher from Sensex pack.

Celestial Labs rose 7.57% to Rs 34.80 after it acquired the
contract research business of Rational Laboratories located at
Nacharam, Hyderabad and Sandiego, USA.

Expiry of futures & options contracts for July 2008 series is on
Thursday, 31 July 2008. As per reports, marketwide rollover of
positions from July 2008 series to August 2008 series stood at 19%,
while that of Nifty was 24%, as of Friday 25 July 2008.

Asian markets were trading higher today, 28 July 2008. China's
Shanghai Composite, Japan's Nikkei, South Korea's Seoul Composite,
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose between 0.02% to 1.12%. Singapore's
Strait Times fell 0.13% to 2,919.14.