Sensex jumps; HPCL up 8.5%, IOC 7%

Although no directive has come from the government on diesel price hike, stocks in the oil & gas shot up after petroleum ministry authorised oil marketing companies (OMC) to make fuel price corrections from time to time. The OMCs are expected to make a price-hike announcement tonight. It also allowed raising LPG subsidy cap to 9 cylinders from 6 cylinders earlier. The Finance Minister made it clear that will be no change in governement's subsidy plan.

While refinery major HPCL rose 8.5 percent, BPCL was up 5.7 percent, Oil India rallied 4.06 percent. Reliance, IOC and ONGC rallied 2.86 percent, 7.4 percent and 4.08 percent, respectively.

At 14.30 hrs IST, the Sensex was up 179.22 points or 0.90% at 19996.85, and the Nifty up 46.55 points or 0.78% at 6048.40.

Telecom stocks also rallied after the Cabinet decided to slash CDMA spectrum price by 50 percent. Bhart Airtel was the top gainer on Sensex, rising 3.07 percent. Reliance Comm rose 3.27 percent, and Tata Comm rose above 1 percent each. Bharti Infratel and  Idea turned flat after a short rally.

Midcap segment picked up momentum following key indices. Purvankara, was up 4 percent each, EIH gained 5.08 percent. Essar Oil, Unitech and Allahabad Bank were up above 3 percent.