Sensex rises 102 pts; RIL gains

The Bombay Stock Exchange (^BSESN : 16026.49 -15.69) benchmark Sensex on Monday gained 102 points in opening trade on heavy buying by foreign funds and retail investors, driven by firming trend on other Asian bourses.

The 30-share index, Sensex, rose 101.81 points, or 0.58 per cent, to 17,123.66 points with stocks of oil and gas, auto and metal sectors leading the rise. The BSE barometer recorded a notable rise of 236.20 points in the previous session.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange (^NSEI : 4778.5 -14.15) index Nifty moved up by 31.95 points, or 0.51 per cent, to 5,084.40 points.

Brokers said sentiment on the domestic bourses remained buoyant on continued buying by foreign funds, tracking firming trend on Asian markets.

Stocks of the country's most-valued firm Reliance Industries (RELIANCE.NS : 991.15 -2.1) were in the limelight and traded 1.40 per cent higher at Rs 2,155 after the company submitted a bid to acquire US petro-chemical giant LyondellBasell that has a market valuation of USD 55 billion.

Other gainers were Sterlite Industries up by 0.74 per cent to Rs 863.95, Tata Steel (TATASTL.BO : 540.2 +6.75) by 0.94 per cent to Rs 556.80, Hindalco (HINDALC0.NS : 142 0) by 0.22 per cent to Rs 134.65, Tata Motors (TATAMOTORS.BO : 679.1 +5.5) by 1.20 per cent to Rs 650.10, Maruti Suzuki by 0.75 per cent to Rs 1,554, State Bank of India (SBIN.NS : 1939.25 -11.05) by 0.31 per cent to Rs 2,343, HDFC Bank by 0.66 per cent to Rs 1,767 and ICICI Bank (ICICIBANK.NS : 810.35 -2.05) by 0.84 per cent to Rs 904.80.

The Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 0.51 per cent in the morning trade on Monday.