Sensex closes up 135 points; realty, Hotel Leela, KFA soar

Mumbai: Key equity benchmarks ended another listless day of trade in the green. The BSE Sensex closed near the highest point of the day at 19664.04, up 0.84 per cent. Meanwhile, the NSE benchmark 50-share Nifty closed up 41.50 points at 5939.70.

The first of the resistance levels has been taken out by the market, says technical analyst Sudarshan Sukhani. "The next resistance is at 5980. So, there is a tradeable move, which is available to us from 5920 to 5980," he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

BSE realty was the best performing sectoral index with gains of 2 per cent; Peninsula Land jumped 6 per cent, DLF rises 3 per cent.

he BSE Sensex closed near the highest point of the day at 19664.04, up 0.84 per cent.

BSE consumer durables index ended the day at the bottom of the sectoral pack with modest gains of 0.3 per cent; TItan Industries in the red.

About 1668 shares have advanced, 1149 shares declined, and 680 shares are unchanged.

Shares of ACC and Ambuja Cements gained after shareholders at each of the cement makers separately approved paying technology fees to controlling stakeholder Holcim of 1 per cent of net annual sales. The approvals remove an uncertainty that had been weighing on the Indian companies, as some investors had feared a protracted process over a decision that had been unpopular with shareholders.

ACC gained 2.80 per cent while Ambuja Cements is up 1.55 per cent. Holcim holds a 50.3 per cent stake in ACC and 50.6 per cent in Ambuja Cements.

Shares in Kingfisher Airlines gain by its daily limit of 5 per cent after controlling stakeholder United Breweries Holdings raised the amount it can lend to the ailing carrier.

United Breweries said it had raised the limit of loans for Kingfisher to Rs 7.5 billion from Rs 3 billion, according to an exchange filing on Monday. The statement came after lenders to Kingfisher said on February 12 that they would take initial steps towards recovering USD 1.4 billion of loans in default after the company failed to come up with a viable funding plan.

UB Group, the parent of both Kingfisher Airlines and United Breweries, has told lenders it would consider using proceeds from a stake sale in a separate group company to Diageo Plc.

Hotel Leela Venture shares went up nearly 10 percent, a day after the company sold its IT park building in the city of Chennai for Rs 1.7 billion to Reliance Industries, according to an exchange filing.

Traders say the hotel operator will be able to reduce debt, a critical factor given higher interest costs led Hotel Leela Venture to post a net loss of Rs 970 million in the October-December quarter, despite what analysts called a better-than-expected top line performance.

The top Sensex losers: Bharti Airtel (-1.94 per cent), GAIL (-1.37 per cent), Hero Motocorp (-1.37 per cent), Coal India (-1.35 per cent), Jindal Steel (-0.79 per cent).

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