Sensex climbs 150 points

MUMBAI: After Monday’s steep fall, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex rebounded by almost 150 points in early trade on fresh buying by funds and retail investors, triggered by rally in other Asian equity markets.

The Sensex, which plunged by 480.35 points in Monday's session, recovered by 150.43 points, or 1.57 per cent to 9,718.57 points in early trade with realty, IT and capital goods shares leading the rally in the first five minutes of trading.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange's Nifty also rose by 29.40 points, or 0.95 per cent to 3,007.5.

Stock brokers said emergence of buying by funds as well as retail investors, fueled by firming trends in other Asian bourses, helped stocks to recover on the domestic bourses.

The BSE IT sector index moved up by 1.99 per cent to 2,278.80 points as stocks like Infosys Technologies gained 2.25 per cent to Rs 1,327, Tata Consultancy Services by 2.29 per cent to Rs 534.70 and Wipro by 1.47 per cent to Rs 244.65.

Other gainers were Reliance Industries by 2.33 per cent to Rs 1,551, Reliance Infra by 2.98 per cent to Rs 517.40, RCom by 1.88 per cent to Rs 171, DLF Ltd by 2.05 per cent to Rs 168.05, Tata Steel by 4.26 per cent to Rs 204.50 and ACC by 1.25 per cent to Rs 572.

Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei was up by 1.80 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.5 per cent in early trade.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business/Sensex-climbs-150-points/articleshow/4337944.cms

BrahMos ready for induction: Army

NEW DELHI: The Army on Monday gave the green signal for the induction of the new version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, which has been developed to act as a precision-strike weapon in a "clustered urban environment''.

Army vice-chief Lt-Gen Noble Thamburaj said the third test of the 290-km-range BrahMos Block-II missile, the first test of which had failed on January 20, at Pokhran on Sunday had been analyzed to be "extremely successful''.

"Accuracy was the watchword. We had wanted them (BrahMos Aerospace) to include a new sensor in the missile. That is what these last three trials were all about. Because more than the naval version, in Army, we wanted the missile to distinguish between similar kind of targets in urban areas,'' he said.

"The process of induction will now start. After carrying out the three field trials, the Army is absolutely satisfied,'' he added, on the sidelines of a seminar organised by Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS).

Both Army and Navy are already inducting the BrahMos Block-I missiles. While Army has ordered two BrahMos regiments in the first phase at a cost of Rs 8,352 crore, with 134 missiles, 10 road-mobile autonomous launchers on 12x12 Tatra vehicles and four mobile command posts, the Navy has ordered 49 BrahMos firing units at a cost of Rs 711 crore.

Pointing out the importance of "firepower'' during combat, Lt-Gen Thamburaj said the missile's "accuracy, lethality and range'' made it "a deadly combination''.

The Army vice-chief said it was important to possess both short and long-range artillery weapon systems because the battlefield was "no longer linear''. "We got to apply our firepower on targets in depth with our special forces operating there during battle. So, longer range weapons give the commander greater flexibility,'' he added.

As reported earlier, the eventual plan of armed forces is to have nuclear-tipped land-attack cruise missiles with strike ranges in excess of 1,500 km.

Soruce:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com