Several news media stocks were abuzz during intraday trade today and closed higher. WSJ attributes it to hopes that advertising by political parties will ring the cash registers. The updated closing prices of stocks mentioned in the article are in the chart (click to enlarge). Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark Sensex closed at 8,976.68, up 1.27% from its previous close.

Many media stocks were up yesterday as well.

From the WSJ story: Citi Investment Research expects political parties and the government to spend as much as 6 billion ($116.9 million) to 8 billion rupees on advertisements ahead of elections, double of what was spent in the last federal elections nearly five years ago. The print media is likely to get around 50%-60% of this advertisement expenditure, while the broadcasting sector is likely to get around 20%, the brokerage said.