Sensex ends at new high of 15,092 points

New Delhi:

The markets had a good day and ended strong on broad based buying in scrips across sectors.

It was an all time high close for Sensex, Nifty, CNX mid cap and BSE small cap index. Barring technology all the sectors participated in the rally. Power, metal, realty, infrastructure stocks led the up trend.

The 30-share Sensex shot up by 181.42 points at 15,092.04, surpassing the previous record of 15,045.73 reached on July 9. It touched an intra-day high of 15,112.22 and a low of 14,963.53 points.

The Nifty up 59 points at 4446. The BSE Midcap Index ended at 6,782.69 up 78 points or 1.2 per cent.

Asia ended in green and even Europe was trading reasonably in the positive terrain.

Broader markets have continued to outperform the benchmark indices, giving markets an excellent breadth.

GMR was the star performer; the stock was up nearly 14 per cent at Rs 952.

Hindalco, Reliance Energy , BHEL, Reliance Comm , HDFC, ICICI Bank are among the top gainers on Sensex.

Bajaj Auto was up three per cent, as the company seems confident with the second half of the year. Bajaj Auto declared lower than expected quarter one results with margin dipping over 300 bps.

The BSE Smallcap Index ended at 8,215.56 up 1.7 per cent. The BSE Bankex was up 1.7 per cent at 8,215.51. Oriental Bank, HDFC Bank, Bank of India, PNB, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank moved upwards.

The BSE Capital Goods Index was up 1.5 per cent at 12,940.79. Astra Microwave, Reliance Infra, Bharat Bijlee, Kirloskar Oil, Alstom Projects, BHEL, Gammon India closed higher.

The BSE Health Care Index was up 1 per cent at 3,868.29. Divis Labs, Sterling Bio, Glenmark, Matrix Lab, Wockhardt closed higher.

The BSE Auto Index closed at 5,006.55 up 1.8 per cent. Apollo Tyres, TVS Motor, Bajaj Auto, Ashok Leyland, Mah and Mah, Maruti Udyog surged.

The BSE Metal Index closed at 11,475.26 up 3.3 per cent. Hindalco, Sterlite Ind, SAIL, Jindal Steel, NALCO, JSW Steel advanced higher.

The BSE IT Index closed flat at 4,870.06. The BSE FMCG Index gained 0.7 per cent at 1,857.37. Marico, Tata Tea, United Spirits, United Brewerie, HUL, Bata India ended higher.

BSE Oil and Gas Index closed at 7,682.19 up 0.8 per cent. Essar Oil, Reliance Petro, GAIL, HPCL, Reliance closed higher.

The NSE cash turnover was at Rs 12865.58 crore and the NSE F&O turnover was at Rs 43187.29 crore. The BSE cash turnover was Rs 6079.16 crore. Total market wide turnover was at Rs 62132.03 crore.

Mumbai remembers 7/11 serial blasts

Mumbai:

Exactly a year ago on a terrible July evening in just a span of 10 minutes, Mumbai's lifeline snapped.

Seven blasts ripped through the city's western railway line network. Over 180 people died and hundreds more were injured.

Today we look back at the day of terror that has left a trail of painful memories.

On Tuesday, the evening of July 11 just after 6 pm Mumbai was caught in rush hour traffic as thousands of people left their offices to catch that all important bus or train back home.

Many of them were returning to homes in the distant suburbs.

The rush was most evident at railway stations across Mumbai, the lifeline of the city.

The city, caught up in the daily routine, was totally unaware of the nightmare that was about to unfold.

The first blast occurred between Khar and Santacruz railway stations at 6.24 pm, in the first class men's compartment.

Terror Timeline: Khar, Santacruz: 6.24 pm Jogeshwari blast: 6.25 pm Borivali: 6.26 pm Mahim: 6:28 pm Mira Road: 6:31 pm Bandra: 6:33 pm Matunga: 6:34 pm

It was the just beginning. Within the next ten minutes, seven blasts occurred on seven trains, all of them on different points along the western railway line.

All the bombs were placed in the first class men's compartment and targetted at middle- upper middle class professionals. The blasts left 188 people dead and over 250 injured.

There were scenes of shock and grief at hospitals and many railway stations.

A city, which had witnessed several acts of terror in the last four years were stunned by the attack, the biggest anywhere in the world since 9/11.

Terror trail leads Aussie cops to Bangalore

New Delhi:

In the wake of the alleged involvement of three youths from Bangalore in the foiled UK terror plot, the Karnataka government is holding a high-level meeting on Tuesday(10/07/2007) to take stock of the situation.

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy will chair the meeting of senior police and home department officials.

It is believed that they would debate vital leads gathered by police and intelligence wings on the links of suspects Kafeel Ahmed, his brother Dr Sabeel Ahmed and cousin Dr Mohammed Haneef, who is in detention in Brisbane.

On Monday, the Chief Minister had said that the intelligence wings have gathered several pieces of information and that these cannot be disclosed now.

High-capacity computer hard disks were seized from the Bangalore residence of Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed. The disk, which contains huge volumes of data, has been sent to a Thiruvananthapuram-based research centre for decoding.

Taj on list of world's seven wonders

Sunday, July 8, 2007 (Lisbon)

Always counted among the man-made marvels of the world by its admirers, the Taj Mahal found pride of place in a new list of seven wonders polled by people around the globe.

The most photographed monument is accompanied by The Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, Statue of Christ Redeemer in Brazil, Machu Picchu in Peru, Pyramid of Chichen Itza in Mexico and the Roman Colosseum in the list announced at a gala ceremony in the Portuguese capital Lisbon to coincide with the date 07.07.07.

In a colourful ceremony amid songs and dance, Bollywood star Bipasha Basu announced Taj Mahal as one of the wonders.

Agra Mayor Anjula Singh received the award.

Indians voted overwhelmingly in the polls cast by over a million people. The polling picked up drastically over the last one month, to see the ''monument of love'' through to the final seven.

The worldwide poll, in which people could vote for their favourite monument either on-line or through SMS, was conducted by the New 7 Wonders Foundation, a Swiss non-profit group.

The one-and-a-half-hour-long ceremony at Portugal's largest venue, the Estadio da Luz, saw award-presentation appearances by celebrities like Hillary Swank, Ben Kingsley, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neil Armstrong.

The celebrity-studded event also saw performances by Jennifer Lopez, Chaka Khan and Dulce Pontes.

Global poll

The voting picked up last month and in the latter half of June, eight per cent of all votes came from India, which then further increased to 13 per cent.

According to the voting percentage, India was in the fourth place, while Peru, rooting for the Inca city of Machu Picchu, led with 20 per cent votes towards June-end.

The publicity campaign gathered steam as the deadline drew closer, with many organisations and individuals appealing to vote for the Taj.

Union Culture Minister Ambika Soni cast her vote in favour of the monument of love on June 22 and appealed to Indians to do the same.

While there has been huge media hype surrounding the campaign launched in 2000, the brainchild of Swiss author-filmmaker Bernerd Weber has also drawn criticism, with the UNESCO distancing itself from the campaign and some experts flaying it as a commercial gimmick.

After the launch of the voting campaign in 2000, the nominations were whittled down by public votes to 77 last year, which was shortened to 21 by a panel of architectural experts chaired by former UNESCO chief F M Zaragoza. (With PTI inputs)

BSE Sensex makes history by breaching the 15,000 landmark

Mumbai, July 6:
The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30-stock Sensex today created history by touching a new life-time high of 15,000.

It may be recollected here that the Sensex had touched the 14,000 mark on March 1, this year. It took about 127 days to for the barometer Sensex to advance by another 1000 points to touch the 15,000 milestone.

The BSE Sensex today opened at 14843.43 points, hit the 15000 mark, fell to the low of 14826.56 and currently hovering at 14944.86 points, showing a gain of 82.99 points during the intra-day trading.

The S&P CNX Nifty which also hit a new intra-day high of 4,411 points at the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The 50-stocks Nifty opened at 4353.10 points, touched a high of 4411.00, a low of 4304.00 and is currently being traded at 4376.70 points, showing an intra-day gain of 22.75 points over its previous close of 4,353.95 points.

The corresponding report for the atleast describes a happy morning at the BSE on 07/07/07.

Three-month-old gets a PAN card

Location: Rourkela

This could work as a free advertisment for the Income Tax department's drive for Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards for all earning citizens.

A couple in Orissa's steel city, Rourkela, has got a PAN card registered in the name of their three-month-old baby Ayush.

Rourkela-based journalist Saroj Rout and his wife Geetanjali, who works for the LIC, decided to get a PAN card for their baby as Ayush would soon feature in a campaign on children.

''One of my friends who runs an NGO told me that he would use my baby son as a model for his campaign on children and that he would pay a fee for it. Since my baby will earn and file returns he should have a PAN card,'' said Saroj.

Both Saroj and Geetanjali have their own PAN cards and either of them could have filed returns for the income of their son.

But they chose to go by the rulebook under which quoting the PAN is mandatory for everyone opening a bank account.

''It is always advisable for everybody to have a pan card and that too with photo pan card but it can be utilized for many purposes and as per law there is no exemption that for a child of three months no PAN card is needed,'' said Arun Kumar Sabat, Chartered Accountant, Bhubaneswar.

It's not clear how much money little Ayush will earn but this is surely a laudable move. An example that should inspire all those who earn and have a bank account but do not have PAN cards of their own as yet.

Rocket fired at Musharraf's plane

Friday, July 6, 2007 (Islamabad)

A rocket and anti-aircraft guns were fired from a Rawalpindi house close to the runaway of the military airbase used by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf while his plane was in air.

It seems to be a possible retaliation by hardliners to the crackdown on the radical Lal Masjid.

According to TV reports police have cordoned off the house at the Asghar Mall Road in Rawalpindi where two anti aircraft guns were found fitted on the roof.

Govt denies

The government has denied that the rocket or the aircraft guns were fired at Musharraf's plane.

The house was rented by a couple only on Thursday.

The occupants of the house, owned by local resident Muhammad Asfar, reportedly escaped after firing the shots.

Musharraf was on his way to Turbat in Balochistan to oversee relief operations in rain-hit areas.

Police recovered 150 rounds more from the roof top of the house.

Musharraf lives in a high-guarded Army cantonment residence in the garrison city.