Sensex jumps on all-round buying: Small and mid-cap shares join the party:Today"s rally was broad based, with participation of shares from small and mid-cap shares:The BSE Mid-Cap Index ended at 5,286.67, up 51.1 points (0.98%), while the BSE Small-Cap Index ended at 6,335.07, up 60.43 points (0.96%):The market-breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, looked strong on BSE. Against 1,402 shares advancing, 1,124 declined. A total of 72 scrips remained unchanged:The 30-share BSE Sensex settled 214.59 points (1.73%) higher, at 12,644.99, helped by strong globe markets and bout of some short-covering in the derivatives segment. The S&P CNX Nifty rose 70.35 points (1.95%), to 3,678.90: : Scrips from the banking, capital goods, IT, oil & gas and telecom sector were among the top gainers. The BSE FMCG Index was the lone loser among the sectoral indices:Garnet Construction Ltd closes flat: Due to some unknown reason most of the Tea counters closed with positive gains. My favourites in this space McLeod Russel, Williamson Magor, Jayshree Tea closed with significant gains:in the US the Wall Street Moved up on the news of merger deals:Dow is up 104 points and Nasdaq is up 19.76 points: Seems the Pre-Q4-Results Rally has at last commenced after a spate of negative news rattled the world as well as the Indian markets:Start buying good stocks in the mid, small and micro-cap space:Don't hear the analysts on TV as they will give buy signal when actually they will be selling: Do you remember that 90% of the brokerage houses commented that they are positive on the markets when the markets first came down in the recent correction, but within a fortnight they changed their stand and talked of a Bear Phase. Please use ur own brain while investing; since most of these people talk on various TV Channels for their own benefit and some TV channels use them to drum-up their TRPs:

Trading was halted in between, at 11:45 IST, for sun outage. It resumed at 12:30 IST. The trading time was extended till 16:15 IST. Today was the last session with a staggered schedule. From Tuesday (20 March 2007), the market will close as usual (15:30 IST). The turnover on BSE aggregated Rs 2649.39 crore, and was very much below the turnover on a regular day. Total market turnover stood at Rs 31949.47 as compared to Rs 41042.22 crore on Friday. The lacklustre turnover was because of a bank holiday on account of Gudhi Padva today. As a result, the settlement for trading done on Friday (16 March 2007) and today’s was clubbed for 21 March 2007. Brokerages have advised clients that shares purchased on Friday (16 March) should not be sold on 19 March 2007. The market-breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, looked strong on BSE. Against 1,402 shares advancing, 1,124 declined. A total of 72 scrips remained unchanged. The BSE Mid-Cap Index ended at 5,286.67, up 51.1 points (0.98%), while the BSE Small-Cap Index ended at 6,335.07, up 60.43 points (0.96%). In the 'A' group, 162 shares advanced and 49 declined, while two scrips remained unchanged. In the 'B1' Group, 404 shares advanced and 279 shares declined, while 23 shares remained unchanged. In the 'B2' Group, 440 shares advanced and 398 shares declined, while 29 shares remained unchanged. The BSE 100 Index had 78 stocks in the positive and 22 in the red. In the BSE 200 Index, 155 shares won and 44 lost. A lone stock remained unchanged from this pack. The BSE 500 Index saw 333 shares advancing and 159 declining. Just 7 stocks remained unchanged. Among the 30-Sensex pack, 24 advanced while the rest declined. State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) surged 6.46% to Rs 2082, and was the top gainer, on reports that the company was in talks with two overseas firms for nuclear technology deals. Bhel also informed BSE that the tentative performance for FY 2007 will be announced on 3 April 2007, at a press conference to be addressed by the chairman & managing director. Reliance Communications (up 5.56% to Rs 397.85), ONGC (up 3.90% to Rs 791.90) and Gujarat Ambuja Cements (up 3.71% to Rs 107.50) were the other gainers. Tata Motors edged up 3%, to Rs 772, for the second day in a row today. Managing Director, Tata Motors, Ravi Kant said on Thursday its small car project coming up at Singur, Kolkata, was on track and would be completed by the middle of next year. Hindustan Lever rose 1.84% to Rs 180.05, on news that the company had hiked prices of its detergent brands, Surf Excel Blue and Surf Excel Quick Wash. Car maker Maruti Udyog (MUL) rose 1.40% to Rs 790.35, after the Indian government said it will sell its remaining 10.27% stake in the former PSU in the next financial year, beginning 1 April 2007. The cabinet has approved the plan for a stake sale in the firm, which is restricted to participation from banks, financial institutions and Indian mutual funds. MUL is 54.2% owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp. Formerly, it was an equal joint venture between the Indian government and Suzuki, when the previous NDA-led regime at the Centre began selling the holding as part of efforts to exit non-core sectors of the economy. Earlier in the day Kotaksecurities.com had given a buy signal. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was up 0.96% to Rs 1312.25, on a volume of 3.94 lakh shares. Cigarette maker ITC declined 2.21% to Rs 141.80, on high volumes of 24.84 lakh shares. It was the top loser. Two block deals of 5 lakh shares each were struck in the counter for an average Rs 142.25 per share by 10:47 IST. Also, the Lok Sabha on Monday passed the bill that allows more than 4% VAT on tobacco. Analysts reckon that any levy of 12.5% VAT by state governments on cigarettes will impact cigarette volumes. In the Union Budget 2007-08, the total excise duty on cigarettes was raised by 6%, which also includes 1% educational cess. ITC derives more than half its revenue from cigarettes. Bike maker Hero Honda down 1.87% to Rs 640, and drug maker Dr Reddy’s Labs was down 1.04% to Rs 675 and were the other losers in the Sensex pack. MindTree Consulting topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 248.30 crore, followed by AMD Metplast (Rs 128.60 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs 100.55 crore) AML (Rs 85.15 crore) and Raj Tele (Rs 75.70 crore). IFCI led the volume chart with trading for around two crore shares followed by AMD Metplast (1.64 crore), Jagjanani Textiles (1.45 crore), Lawreshwar polymers (1.02 crore) and Abhishek Mills (93.65 lakh). Abhishek Mills settled at Rs 91.15, a discount over the IPO price of Rs 100. The scrip had listed at Rs 94, hit a low of Rs 79.40 and a high of Rs 100.45. A strong 93.64 lakh shares changed hands in the counter on BSE. Abhishek Mills (AML) has presence in two segments, yarn manufacturing through a spinning unit, which has been designated as an export oriented unit (EoU), and construction. AMD Metplast settled at Rs 78.30 on BSE, a premium over the IPO price of Rs 75. The AMD Metplast (AMD) stock also hit a low of Rs 64.65, and a high of Rs 82.55, after listing at Rs 65.10 on BSE. A strong 1.64 crore shares changed hands in the counter on BSE. Jagjanani Textiles settled at Rs 23.15, a discount of 7.4% over IPO price of Rs 25. The stock debuted at Rs 22.40, hit a low of Rs 20.10 and a high of Rs 24.90. As many as 1.44 crore shares changed hands in the counter on BSE. Jagjanani Textiles had come out with a public issue of 81 lakh equity shares of Rs 10 each, at a price of Rs 25 per equity share, aggregating Rs 20.25 crore. Lawreshwar Polymers settled at Rs 14, a discount of 12.5% over the IPO price of Rs 16. The stock opened at Rs 15.90, hit a low of Rs 13.55 and a high of Rs 17.75. A strong 1.02 crore shares changed hands in the counter on BSE. Lawreshwar Polymers entered the capital market with an initial public offer (IPO) of 87,12,500 equity shares of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 6. The company makes Lehar brand of footwear. The BSE Bankex was up 1.81%, at 6,218.19. UTI Bank (up 5.22%), Bank of India (up 4.27%), HDFC Bank (up 2.67%), ICICI Bank (up 2.39%), and SBI (up 2.25%) moved upwards. Frontline as well as second rung IT stocks advanced on renewed buying. The BSE IT Index gained 1.80%. Infosys (up 1.69% to Rs 2,081.90), Wipro (up 1.80% to Rs 576), Satyam Computers (up 0.86% to Rs 433) and TCS (up 1.77% to Rs 1258) had advanced. i-Flex Solutions (up 6.41%), Mphasis (up 4.48%), NIIT Tech (up 8%), iGate (up 6.8%) and Aptech (up 5%) advanced from the midcap IT space. The stock of Satyam Computers stock was buoyed by unconfirmed rumours of the company being close to clinching a few $100 million deals. IFCI surged 8.35% to Rs 26.60, on high volumes of 2.01 crore shares, on BSE. Pidilite Industries rose 0.41% to Rs 110.60, after Vinyl Chemicals India said on Monday its board will consider selling the unit in Maharashtra to the company. The board of Vinyl Chemicals will meet on 21 March 2007, to discuss the matter. A panel appointed to review Vinyl's operations following losses in five consecutive quarters, recommended the sale. Parsvnath Developers surged 1.91% to Rs 276.15, after launching Parsvnath City, a high-end residential township in Dharuhera, Haryana. Parsvnath City will have plots ranging from 300 sq yards to 960 sq yards. This township will also have 150 villas, around 1,000 three-bedroom, centrally air-conditioned apartments besides a number of modern amenities. The township, with an estimated cost of Rs 450 crore, will be laced with a health club and a swimming pool. It will also house a commercial / shopping mall-cum-multiplex, an in-house medical center with modern facilities, a school spread in 5 acres and a police post with a provision for a taxi stand. Tyre maker JK Industries tumbled 10.81% to Rs 134.85, as trading resumed in the stock after a two-month suspension, to give effect to a restructuring scheme. There were outstanding sell orders for 61,870 shares at the lower limit on BSE. The last traded price of the J K Industries scrip on BSE was Rs 151.20. The scrip was suspended for trading on 18 January 2007. Following a resumption of trading in the stock, exchanges on 16 March 2007 had set a base price of Rs 168.50 to calculate the 20% price band for today’s trade. The restructuring of JK Industries involved a transfer of investments to a separate company, Netflier Technologies. Netflier Technologies was later renamed Netflier Finco, which will be separately listed on the bourses in due course. As a part of restructuring, the equity capital of JK Industries was reduced to Rs 30.79 crore from Rs 41.05 crore. For the shareholders of JK Industries, the reduction in equity capital was effected by allotting 75 new equity shares in exchange of every 100 existing equity shares of the company. The face value of JK Industries remains Rs 10 as a result. Simultaneously, 25 equity shares of Netflier Finco (of face value of Rs 10) were issued for every 100 shares held in JK Industries. Among Asian benchmarks, Japanese Nikkei 225 Index surged 265.40 points (1.59%) to 17,009.55, the Hang Seng rose 313.24 points (1.65%), to 19,266.74, the Straits Times gained 44.64 points (1.45%) at 3,113.39, the Seoul Composite rose 15.51 points (1.09%), to 1,443.39 and the Taiwan Weighted was up 17.66 points (0.23%), to 7,737.46. European markets were also trading positive, with gains ranging between 0.28 - 1.50%. Over the last few weeks, local bourses had slipped due to weakness in global markets. Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Monday that India is confident it can moderate inflation, and the aim was to do so without hurting growth. The next major trigger for the bourses is Q4 March 2007 earnings, reports of which by corporates will start next month. Market men will closely watch what company managements have to say about the outlook for FY 2008. Global liquidity still remains strong, and may provide the trigger for a recovery. An important event being keenly awaited are the meetings this week of the central banks in Japan and the US, to decide on interest rates. The Bank of Japan’s two-day meeting ends on Tuesday (20 March 2007), while the US Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting ends on Wednesday (21 March 2007). The Fed is expected to keep interest rates unchanged. Analysts will eagerly hunt for cues for the US economic outlook in the Fed’s accompanying statement. US crude oil rose 19 cents to $57.30 a barrel, after falling as far as $56.17 last week on worries of an economic slowdown in top consumer, the United States. US stocks fell on Friday, as data showing strong consumer price inflation dented hopes for an interest-rate cut any time soon, while fears about the subprime mortgage crisis kept investors on the edge. A government report showed February consumer prices rose faster than analysts estimated, while core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy costs, matched forecasts. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 49.27 points, or 0.41%, to end at 12,110.41. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 5.33 points, or 0.38%, to 1,386.95. The Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 6.04 points, or 0.25%, to 2,372.66.