The Hindu : Business : Sensex climbs to new peak

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 17, 2004

Business

Business

Sensex climbs to new peak

MUMBAI, DEC. 16. The Sensex today once again climbed to a new lifetime closing peak of 6420.38 in low volume, driven by unabated foreign institutional investment inflows into the booming bourses.

Jumping yesterday's record high, the BSE benchmark 30-share index spurted to a new intra-day high of 6437 before ending the day at 6420.38, the highest close in the history of the BSE, against yesterday's close of 6402.29, a net gain of 18.09 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty today notched up another 4.50 points to scale fresh lifetime closing high of 2033.20 on the National Stock Exchange backed by sustained FII buying even as the closing list displayed a mixed fare. Although 447 declines outnumbered 343 advances, select buying by foreign institutional investors drove the Nifty in positive terrain, a dealer said, adding that 22 scrips were unchanged even as 74 securities hit their price bands.

Riding piggyback on the inflows of foreign investments, the market resisted pressure of profit taking at the dizzy heights by operators and retailers and managed to settle in the positive territory.

Foreign institutional investors, who reported relatively low net investments of Rs. 182.40 crores on Tuesday and made selective purchases during the day, have pumped in about $9.43 billion (nearly Rs. 42,900 crores) till December 14, making it the highest ever in any calendar year.

Sell-off by domestic investors was also attributed to a firm trend in global oil price. Oil futures prices rose above $44 a barrel on December 15.

Commenting on the price rally that entered the fourth day in a row, brokers said the market is likely to continue its upward march as there is no aggressive selling pressure from any quarters.

Software and select auto counters attracted fairly good buying interest and closed with sharp gains. Blue chips including Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, L&T, HPCL, Infosys Technologies, HDFC Bank, Grasim, Dr. Reddy's, ACC and GACL scored impressive gains.

The volume of business fell sharply to Rs. 2,085.93 crore from Rs. 2,462.70 crores yesterday. RIL remained the top traded scrip with the highest turnover of Rs. 157.16 crores followed by Bharti Tele-Ventures (Rs. 71.32 crores), SBI (Rs. 65.69 crores), IVRCL Infra (Rs. 62.60 crores) and Tata Motors (Rs. 55.59 crores). — PTI

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