It?s the season for 52-week highs on the bourses. In each of the last seven sessions, at least 14 stocks of the BSE 500 have hit their 52-week price high, every single day. In fact, the number of stocks hitting new high has steadily risen over the last one month. Some of the stocks that have hit their highs recently include ACC, Hero Honda, Siemens, Jain Irrigation Systems, DB Realty and Axis Bank. They belong to diverse sectors comprising cement, auto, construction & engineering, mining, banking and realty.

As many as 27 different stocks hit their high during the week ended March 10, while BSE Sensex went up by 7.8% in the last one month. Karvy Stock Securities vice-president Ambareesh Baliga said, ?Unless 70-80 stocks hit their 52-week high on a regular basis, there won?t be a major correction.?

Some experts believe that stock prices of these companies are backed by strong fundamentals. According to KR Choksey MD Deven Choksey, production volumes are at an all-time high in the auto sector and will rise further by 5-10%. Whereas, banks, particularly the private sector ones, are showing strong organic growth, he says. BSE Auto index and BSE Bankex were among the top sector performers for the year till date giving a return of 2.5% and 2.8% respectively, while Sensex fell 2.1% during the same period.

Baliga feels that FII interest has also contributed to the rising stocks to some extent. FIIs have been on a buying spree on the bourses in the last eight sessions purchasing stocks worth Rs 10,661 crore, according to Sebi data. On Thursday, they continued with their buying spree mopping up a further Rs 305 crore worth of equities, according to BSE’s provisional estimates.

Interestingly, atleast one pharma or healthcare firm has hit its high every single day since February 10, 2010.