Nifty crosses 4,900-mark, Sensex up 187 points

Mumbai, Sep 16 (PTI) The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark
Sensex rose by 187 points to a 16-month high in opening trade
Wednesday as foreign funds bought shares driven by reports of
advance tax payments by some big corporate houses and firming
global markets.

The 30-share BSE barometer shot up by 187.99 points to
16,642.44 points with most of the heavyweight stocks quoting
in positive territory. The Sensex had rallied over 240 points
in Tuesday's trading.

The wide-based National Stock index Nifty crossed
4,900-points level for the first time in almost 16 months. The
Nifty rose by 57.75 points to 4,949.85 points, a level last
seen on May 29, 2008.

Brokers said buying activity in the domestic markets
picked up momentum after reports of advance tax payments by
some corporates, indicating revival in the economy.

Firming trends in global markets after better-than-
expected US economic data too boosted the trading sentiments
here, they said.

Major gainers were Reliance Industries, Larsen and
Toubro, BHEL, Tata Steel, Sterlite Industries, State Bank of
India and ICICI Bank.

Japan's Nikkei was up 1.58 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang
Seng Index rose 1.64 per cent in the morning trade.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.58 per cent
higher Tuesday. PTI