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FIIs buy pharma, software shares; Sensex up 72 points, 2921.80

The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex shot up by about 72 points and crossed the psychological barrier of 2900 points following frenzied buying by foreign institutional investors in pharma and software scrips today.

According to market sources, the FIIs bought sizeable amount of Dr Reddy's, Glaxo, Hoechst, Novartis shares in the pharma sector while NIIT, Satyam, PSI Data, Pentafour in the software group.

Reflecting the bullish phase, the 30-scrip BSE Sensex opened at 2851.45 points, touched the day's high of 2922.28 points, fell below the 2900 mark to touch the day's low of 2851.45 points, before closing at 2921.80 points, showing a net gain of 71.98 points as against the previous close of 2849.82 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index also registered a smart gain of 32.22 points to 1298.71 points from the Friday's close of 1266.49 points.

The Asian markets too witnessed uptrend; the major indices registered sharp gains today.

Nikkie Index at Tokyo closed at 14723.49, higher by 83.52 points over the previous close. The FTSE-100 at London gained by 36.2 points to 5618.10 points while the Hang Seng Index at Hongkong shot up by 465.68 points to 10428.82 points.

Back home, the BSE-200 and Dollex indices gained by 7.13 and 2.71 points to 301.23 and 117.81 points from the previous close of 294.10 and 115.10 points respectively.

Leading domestic institutional investor, the Unit Trust of India did not enter the market while LIC and GIC have made moderate purchases in select scrips, dealers said and added that short-covering in some counters also helped the market to maintain uptrend.

Among the major gainers, PSI Data gained by 7.25 per cent to Rs 164, NIIT three per cent to Rs 1,455, Satyam Computers three per cent to Rs 527, Pentafour Software five per cent to Rs 522. Dr Reddy's zoomed by eight per cent to Rs 463.35, Smithkline Pharma 7.33 per cent to Rs 432.50, Glaxo three per cent to Rs 595, Hoechst earned marginally by 0.5 per cent to Rs 418, Novartis 2.2 per cent to Rs 763.

UNI

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