Sensex breaks 6,800-mark to touch all-time closing high

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Mumbai, March 4: The Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE) scaled a new peak for the second consecutive day, and for the first time crossed the 6,800-mark within five minutes of opening the session on Friday. Strong expectations of overall bullish trend pushed the Sensex up 64.8 points, or 0.95%, to 6,849.48 points.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty also touched its life-time high of 2,152.75 in intra-day trades before settling at 2,148.15, up 19.3 points, or 0.91%. Many of the sectoral indices too touched new all-time or 52-week highs. BSE Metal, Bankex, BSE Capital Goods, BSE PSU and the mid-cap indices, BSE-500 and BSE-200 touched their new all-time highs. BSE Consumer Durables, BSE-100 and BSE Teck dwarfed their previous 52-week highs.

The Sensex resumed at a new all-time high of 6,798.62 as against Thursday’s close of 6,784.72 and soon shot up to a high of 6,864.62 on heavy inflow from foreign institutional investors (FIIs). FIIs were net buyers at Rs 367.6 crore on March 3. So far, FIIs have pumped in $2.43 billion in 2005. The turnover on BSE and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was pegged at Rs 3,115.58 crore and Rs 6,371.01 crore respectively. The market undertone remained positive with no signs of frantic selling over high levels. The market breadth was fairly positive with 1,328 advances outnumbering declines at 1,123.

According to analysts, there is an overall bullish trend in the markets. Sharad Shukla, head-PMS, IL&FS Investsmart, said: “There is no need for investors to panic. Expectations are strong this time and a long-term bull trend is being witnessed. FIIs have also been strong drivers pumping in money in huge volumes.” The BSE Capital Goods index outperformed other sectoral indices, gaining 1.69%, or 58.16 points, at 3,500.42. Crompton Greaves Ltd gained 14.24%, or Rs 59.4, ending at Rs 476.5. The stock hit a new all-time high of Rs 493.9. Gammon India, Siemens Ltd, Larsen & Toubro, Bhel also posted marginal gains.

Stocks like Mid-Day Multimedia Ltd and Punjab National Bank (PNB) were in the limelight due to media reports on Thursday linked to them. PNB announced a price band of Rs 370-390 for its public offer. The stock gained 9.06% at Rs 476.25 on Friday. Mid-Day shed 10.55% at Rs 82.95 after Indian Express Newspapers Ltd acquired 10% stake.