Sensex closes at all-time high of 21,034

The BSE benchmark sensex on Wednesday surged nearly 105 points to close at all-time high of 21,033.97 on heavy foreign fund inflows in bluechips, amid speculation that the US Fed would maintain its monetary stimulus when they conclude a meeting today.

Continuing gains after Tuesday's 359-point rally following the RBI policy, the sensex shot up by 104.96 points, or 0.50 per cent to 21,033.97 — eclipsing the previous record close of 21,004.96 on November 5, 2010.

The 30-share bluechip index's intra-day high of 21,206.77 was hit on January 10, 2008.
Bharti Airtel zoomed by 5.23 per cent after the company posted better-than-expected operating performance. Other contributors to the sensex were ITC, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Dr Reddy's Lab, TCS and Bajaj Auto.

"Continued buying from FIIs and greater risk appetite of investors at higher levels is leading to this rally," said Nidhi Saraswat, Senior Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 30.80 points, or 0.50 per cent, to 6,251.70, after touching the day's high of 6,269.20. Also, SX40 index, the flagship index of MCX-SX, closed 69.68 points up at 12,514.81.

Brokers said the trading sentiment continued to be bullish on expectations of liquidity enhancement after the Reserve Bank of India cut marginal standing facility (MSF) to 8.75 per cent in its monetary policy review on Tuesday.

A firming trend in the Asian region and higher opening in Europe before the outcome of US Federal Reserve's meeting where the $85 billion a month monetary stimulus is expected to be maintained, also influenced the Indian market sentiment.

Foreign funds have continued to buy domestic stocks for 18 straight sessions till Tuesday, encouraging domestic participants to increase bets, experts said.

Sectorally, the BSE Healthcare sector index gained the most by rising 1.19 per cent, followed by FMCG (1.12 per cent), TECK (0.66 per cent), Power (0.51 per cent) and realty (0.47 per cent).

No hidden gold in Unnao, declares ASI

It’s official! Seer Shobhan Sarkar’s dream has deflated and India’s hunt for gold has met an unsuccessful ending. 

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Tuesday announced that there was no hidden gold in Unnao as claimed by seer Shobhan Sarkar. It has now decided to wind up the excavation, which began on October 18, soon. 

Digging to unearth 1,000 tonnes of gold, said to be buried beneath the ruins of Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh's fort, near Daundia Kheda village, in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district, had begun amid heavy security. 
Remnants of a brick wall and other debris were found during the excavation, but not treasure. 

Seer Shobhan Sarkar had a dream about presence of a huge quantity of gold and approached his devotee, union Minister of State for Agriculture Charan Das Mahant, and the PMO, following which the survey and excavation were undertaken. 

Preliminary findings suggested presence of "some metal underneath the earth", following which ASI teams decided to proceed with the excavation.
Source : Zee News

‘Aadhaar’ to facilitate paper-less bank account opening

Mumbai, October 24, 2013(PTI): new feature added to ‘Aadhaar’ will now enable the card-holder to open a bank account without any paperwork.
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues Aadhaar cards, has added the feature in a bid to push for electronic-driven economy.

Explaining the facility, UIDAI chief Nandan Nilekani said a person can walk into a bank branch, tell his/her 12- digit individual identification number (Aadhaar) and walk out with a bank account.

The bank will connect with the UIDAI using an authorised service agent, generally a payment gateway, which in turn connects up with the UIDAI database, he said.

The only detail a customer has to give at the bank branch will be his/her fingerprint impression, Nilekani said.

The facility is safer than the current practice of submitting photocopies of documents, Nilekani said, adding all the work happens electronically at the back-end.

“Fundamentally, all the infrastructure is falling into place now for creating a much more electronic, much more digital cash kind of an economy,” he said, adding it has long- term ramifications, including making the economy cashless.

The authority, set up four years ago with the Infosys co-founder as its head, has rolled out 460 million Aadhaar numbers till now and is targeting to take this to 600 million (half of the country’s population) by early next year.

Using the numbers as the base, it has helped rolling out a host of services, including direct subsidy transfer and person to person fund transfer using mobile phones.

The UIDAI chief said the e-KYC facility launched today has huge “strategic implications”.

Private sector Axis Bank became the first lender to offer the e-KYC (know your customer) account opening facility. One Nitin Shah of neighbouring Thane district became the first person to open his bank account using Aadhaar.

“Anybody can walk into a branch, give his finger prints and walk out with a bank account,” Axis Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Shikha Sharma said at the launch.

Nilekani said the bank will roll out this facility across all its bank branches in ten days’ time. However, he parried queries on expansion of the facility at other banks.

The idea is to expand the e-KYC facility from here on, he said, adding it is possible for getting an insurance cover and applying for mutual funds using this feature.