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Sensex gains 61 points

United Nations Secretary- General Kofi Annan's effort to avoid military action against Iraq had an immediate impact on sentiments at the Bombay Stock Exchange -- pivotals gained sharply on renewed buying support from foreign institutional investors.

The market opened on a dull note due to the Uttar Pradesh crisis. However, the mood turned bullish as the FIIs participated in a big way soon after the report of Annan's signing an agreement with Iraqi authorities. The FIIs picked up blue chips like Hind Lever, HDFC, Nestle and MTNL.

Reflecting the trend, the BSE sensitive index opened at 3,426.88, touched the day's low of 3,424.14 points, firmed up to touch the day's high of 3,479.20 and later closed at 3,478.40 points, showing a net gain of 61.10 points over Friday's 3417..30 points.

The broad- based BSE-100 index gained by 29.10 points to 1,501.08 points as against the previous close of 1,471.98 points.

The BSE-200 and dollex indices closed higher by 5.98 and 1.47 points to 332.56 and 141.35 points as against the previous close of 326.58 and 139.88 points respectively.

The decision of the Allahabad high court to stay UP Governor Romesh Bhandari's dismissal of the Kalyan Singh government also had a positive impact on the market. According to leading BSE brokers, pivotals reportedly quoted higher in kerb deals.

The total turnover was Rs 6.62 billion. The ITC continued its top position by registering Rs 1.33 billion, followed by Tata Tea (Rs 990.9 million), Hind Lever (Rs 554.7 million), SBI (Rs 471.3 million) and Castrol Ind (Rs 461.1 million).

Hectic activity was also witnessed at counters like Reliance (Rs 434.7 million), Bajaj Auto (Rs 191.8 million), MTNL (Rs 181.2 million), Nestle (Rs 119.6 million), HDFC (Rs 106.3 million), Bharat Petro (Rs 104.9 million), Telco (Rs 101.1 million), L&T (Rs 91.8 million), ACC (Rs 85.2 million) and Corporation (Rs 82.1 million).

In B1 group, VSNL, ONGC, BFL Soft, Rel Pet, Aptech Ltd, Rasi Cem, Guj Ind Cem, Max Ind, Dalmia Bh, Deepak Fert, Lakshmi Mach, Nedungadi Ba, Federal Bank and Siv Indus emerged active counters.

UNI