India scored over other Asian markets, with the BSE Sensex gaining 7.3 per cent compared with Hong Kong (up 2.4 per cent) and Singapore (up 4 per cent). Once again, on the Indian markets it was a display of records, with market players in no mood to let go the occasion, playing to the gallery through out the day. The 369-point jump is the highest single day gain on the BSE ever since the circuit filter was introduced.

Infosys, which hit the ceiling in the morning, set new records. Its market capitalisation has exceeded that of Hindustan Lever by a narrow margin. At Rs 15,677 per share Infosys's market cap was Rs 51,845 crore, inching past HLL's Rs 51,642 crore. More, Infosys appears set to dethrone HLL in the Sensex in terms of weight. HLL had a weight of 17.71 per cent while Infosys weight was 17.48 per cent in the index.

HLL, however, showed a gain of over 6 per cent, suggesting that the market may gradually shift focus to FMCG stocks.

With Infosys leading the market, 95 per cent of the software stocks hit the upper end of the circuit. There were hardly any sellers in the market which was reflected in the advance-decline ratio of 4:1 and the low volume of Rs 2,228 crore on the BSE.

It was one of the rare days in the Indian stock market history. Within the first five minutes of trading, the Sensex was up more than 300 points or 6 per cent. In fact, during the first 20 minutes, trading volume touched Rs 900 crore. For the rest of the day, the market was one-sided, with hardly any sellers. Almost every other stock opened with a gap of over 5 per cent to hit the upper circuit.

Other Sensex movers like MTNL, ITC, NIIT, Ranbaxy and L&T hit the upper circuit, providing enough ammunition to the index to hit an all-time high of 5384.66 points. It closed at 5375.72 points, showing a net gain of 369.9 points.

While almost all the sectors showed handsome gains, software and pharma continued to see investor rush. Software stocks like Satyam Computers, Pentafour Software, Global Tele, Himachal Futuristic, Silverline, Digital, HCL, NIIT and Tata Elxsi remained at the circuit throughout the day. There was not much FII activity on the bourses. It was mainly driven by the day traders and the retail investors. Also according to market players, on the NSE, where the current settlement ends on Tuesday, it was mainly delivery-based, because ``it's not really worthwhile to speculate for just two days,'' said an NSE member. And surprisingly, in some counters, the domestic institutions even sold at the higher levels.

``I expect the market momentum to sustain for some more time. Monday's euphoria was mainly on account of a bug-free transition to the year 2000. I expect the FIIs and the domestic institutions to enter the market soon. This will lift the market indices further up which will soon be followed by the usual budget expectations rally.'' said VVLN Sastry at Khandwala Securities.``I am expecting the government to announce a hike in oil prices soon. If the price hike comes now, there is every possibility that its effects will get absorbed in the market without much trouble,'' said Chirag Sanghvi at Asit C Mehta Investment Intermediaries. It could be recalled that the last diesel price hike in October, which at that time had become almost inevitable, was announced when the market was busy elebrating the return of the Vajpayee government.

``A correction in the Sensex at the present level won't make much difference to the software scrips at least. Some decline in the Sensex-based non-IT scrips might bring in some correction in the Sensex but the rally in the software scrips is unlikey to be disturbed, at least till the third quarter results are out,'' said a dealer with a domestic broking house.