Processing .....please wait.. 
The article has been forwarded.... 
Indian shares bounce back on bullish economic outlook
Friday, 08 August 2003, 19:30 IST
MUMBAI: India's blue-chip share market index bounced back from lower levels Thursday, as investors rushed to pick up stocks of traditional companies on hopes of sharply higher economic growth in the current financial year.
Dealers said that the market opened firm after ending in the negative zone in the past two consecutive sessions on profit taking. The market index surged higher in the early trade on value buying in select old economy heavyweights.
The rally gained momentum in the second half of the trading session after the government projected a bullish outlook for the country's economy in the current financial year.
Reflecting the bullish sentiment, the stock market barometer 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index or Sensex closed at 3,806.83, netting a gain of 65.17 points or 1.74 percent over its previous session's close.
The benchmark index had lost 2.5 percent in the last two sessions as investors pocketed gains on heavyweight counters after a sharp bull run.
India's economy would achieve a robust growth in the current financial year following normal monsoon rains in the country, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said Thursday.
"The economy is on a growth path and that is in conformity with the budget projections," said Singh, while presenting a quarterly review on the economy to Parliament.
"The monsoon has so far progressed well with 86 percent of the metrological subdivisions receiving adequate rainfall by July 23. Latest forecast predict 98 percent of the long-period average rainfall," he said.
"This should reverse the decline in agriculture output of last year leading to a robust growth in this sector."
The agriculture sector, which depends heavily on the monsoon rains, accounts for a quarter of India's total output and employs more than two-thirds of its billion-plus people.
Metrological department officials say the June-September monsoon is expected to be close to normal this year after below normal rains last year, when the country faced the worst drought in three decades.
Buoyed by normal rainfall, economic think tanks have started revising projections for economic growth in the current fiscal year to 6 and 6.5 percent, up from previous forecasts of between 5 and 5.5 percent.
"Although the market closed in the last two consecutive sessions, the undertone was bullish on continued fund inflows into the bourses," said a fund manager with a foreign brokerage firm.
"And now the government's economic projection has really come as a positive trigger for investors who were waiting on the sidelines for bargain hunting. This will continue to drive the market higher in sessions ahead," the fund manager added.
In the old economy sector, Tata Motor, the automobile making arm of the conglomerate Tata group, gained 4.5 percent to touch 
243 after the company said Wednesday it sold 24,995 vehicles in July, a rise of 38 percent over last year.
Consumer goods giant Hindustan Lever rose 3.02 percent to 165.20 on hopes that improved economic growth in the country would boost the sale of company's products all across the country.
State Bank of India, the country's largest commercial bank, ended 2.7 percent higher at 418.35 and Reliance Industries, the largest refiner and petrochemicals maker, closed with a gain of 1.4 percent at 355.70.
Other major gainers in the sector included ITC, Tata Steel, Bharat Heavy Electronics, Grasim Industries, Bajaj Auto, Larsen and Toubro, BSES, Cipla, Dr. Reddy's Labs and Ranbaxy Laboratories.
Source: IANS
243 after the company said Wednesday it sold 24,995 vehicles in July, a rise of 38 percent over last year.
Consumer goods giant Hindustan Lever rose 3.02 percent to 165.20 on hopes that improved economic growth in the country would boost the sale of company's products all across the country.
State Bank of India, the country's largest commercial bank, ended 2.7 percent higher at 418.35 and Reliance Industries, the largest refiner and petrochemicals maker, closed with a gain of 1.4 percent at 355.70.
Other major gainers in the sector included ITC, Tata Steel, Bharat Heavy Electronics, Grasim Industries, Bajaj Auto, Larsen and Toubro, BSES, Cipla, Dr. Reddy's Labs and Ranbaxy Laboratories.
Source: IANS