Mumbai, July 2008 - Indian equities continued to show signs of confidence ahead of the outcome of the trust vote later today. Despite negative cues coming in from the global markets and higher oil prices, bulls continued to dominate proceedings on Dalal Street with index heavyweights leading the way. Taking into consideration today’s rally, the benchmark Sensex has gained by over 1500 points in last four trading sessions on hopes that UPA will win the trust vote in parliament.

Broad-based buying was seen in sectors such as steel, power, infra and banking stocks among the major gainers. Buying was also seen in Mid-cap and Small-cap stocks.

Among the 30-Sensex stocks, ITC, ICICI Bank, BHEL and R Com were among the major gainers. Whereas, Bharti, DLF, Maruti and JP Associates were among the notable losers. Finally, the BSE 30-share Sensex added 254 points to close at 14,104 and NSE Nifty advanced 80 points to 4240.

ADAG group rallied on hopes that government will remain in power with the support of Samajwadi Party. There is speculation that ADAG group may benefit from the promoters close ties with senior leadership of SP. RNRL, was up by 8% to Rs74, Reliance Capital was up by 8% to Rs1,177 and R Com gained b y over 5% to Rs471.

Shares of all the UB group companies also shot up after United Spirits announced strong results yesterday. Major gainers were McDowell, UB Holdings and Shaw Wallace, advancing in the range of 8-20%.

IT stocks closed higher following a sharp decline in stock prices over last couple of weeks. Wipro surged by 6% to Rs395, Educomp was up by 4% to Rs3,035, TCS advanced by 2% to Rs832 and HCL Tech was up by 4% to Rs205.

Renewed buying was seen in power and capital goods stocks led by gains in BHEL and Tata Power. BHEL was up by 6% to Rs1,597 after the company announced impressive Q1 numbers with net profit at Rs3,844mn (up 33%). L&T and Crompton Greaves were the other major gainers across the capital goods space.

SAIL surged by over 7% to Rs134 after the company posted a net profit of Rs18.351bn for the quarter ended June 30, 2008 as compared to Rs15.251bn for the quarter ended June 30, 2007. Total Income increased from Rs83.464bn for the quarter ended June 30, 2007 to Rs114.219bn for the quarter ended June 30, 2008.

Maruti fell by over 9% to Rs588 after the company announced its Q1 results with net profit at Rs4,653mn, down by 6.8%. Concerns of margin pressure saw the stock touching day’s low of Rs585.