BSE Sensex rises; Infosys up 5 pct, Satyam drops

Photo of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building January 9, 2009. The BSE Sensex rose 1 percent on Tuesday, powered by bellwether Infosys Technologies which posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings but cut its full-year guidance.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex rose 1 percent on Tuesday, powered by bellwether Infosys Technologies which posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings but cut its full-year guidance.

The market could, however, face resistance because of concerns about earnings of other companies following a sharp fall in consumer spending in a slowing economy, traders said.

Shares in Infosys were trading up 5.3 percent at 1,217.7 rupees 0557 GMT off a shaky start after the No. 2 outsourcer beat expectations with a one-third rise in quarterly profit.

"The results are broadly in line with expectations. So that's a relief. One big positive was that volume (of business) in the third quarter has gone up. It was a pleasant surprise for the market," said Amitabh Chakraborty, president (equities), Religare Securities.

"Its net employee addition has also been good," he said, adding the lower full-year guidance had already been factored in by the market.

Shares in outsourcer Satyam Computer Services Ltd dropped 3.9 percent to 33.05 rupees, after jumping 44 percent in the previous session, as a new government-appointed board got down to the business of trying to put the software services

exporter back on track after a damaging fraud.

The main 30-share BSE Index was trading up 0.8 percent at 9,183.6 points, with 17 components gaining. In the broader market, gainers outstripped losers by 1.23:1, on low volume of about 87 million shares.

"I see this as a pull-back rally as the market has been down for the last few days," said Vinod Bansal, director at Ficuswealth.com.

"There will be strong resistance and correction at 2,800-levels," he said, referring to the 50-share Nifty index which was trading up 0.17 percent at 2,777.85 points.

STOCKS ON THE MOVE

* PBA Infrastructure was down 8.7 percent at 27.70 rupees after the construction firm clarified after market hours on Monday it had received an order worth 459 million rupees in Maharashtra, not 4.59 billion as announced earlier. The stock had

risen nearly 16 percent on Monday.

* Hindustan Construction Ltd was up 4.2 percent at 48.60 rupees after the company said it had signed two pacts for city and water projects worth 415 billion rupees.

MAIN TOP 3 BY VOLUME

* Satyam Computer on 12.8 million shares

* Reliance Natural on 5.4 million shares

* Unitech on 4.4 million shares

(For Quotes and Interactive Charts of BSE Sensex click

here)