As the Sensex was rising steadily during the one-hour trading, people danced to the beats of drums outside PJ Towers. Inside the building, clients and brokers' family members exchanged greetings and sweets. In the meantime, they also made token purchases on the BOLT.

Domestic institutional investors also made token purchases from their brokers. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), however, did to make any purchases, token or otherwise.

However, as the BSE closed 20 minutes earlier than the National Stock Exchange(NSE), the national bourse almost crashed during the closing hours, and closed only five points higher than its previous closing.

According to Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services chairman Parag Parikh, ``I expect the markets to be in the bull run in the long run. However, one would see a lot of volatility in the market. You would need to have a heart of steel to go through the ups and downs.'' According to Kisan Ratilal Choksey Shares & Securities chairman Kisan R Choksey, ``Since the fundamentals are strong, we are expecting the markets to remain bullish.

Sectorwise, we are bullish on the telecom stocks, VSNL and MTNL in particular.

Infotech stocks were in the limelight during Sunday's trading on the BSE. Digital Equipment, HFCL, and Pentafour were in the limelight. However, after the BSE closing, the prices almost crashed on the NSE, with Global Tele, Reliance, and a host of other scrips closing much lower than their respective BSE closing.

During the whole of Samvat 2055, the Sensex gainedclose to 1748 points. From its 2850 level last year, this year, the Sensex closed at 4598 points. During the last one year, the Sensex, from a low of 2741.70 on November 30, 1998, climbed almost 90 per cent (2409 points) to its October 11 level of 5150.99, its all-time high.

Likewise, the S&P CNX Nifty on the NSE also gained more than 90 per cent from its 52-week low of 800.10 points -- reached again on November 30, 1998-to its all-time high of 1522.85 on October 14 last.