The Hindu : Business : Sensex touches 6600 mark

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 30, 2004

Business

Business

Sensex touches 6600 mark

MUMBAI, DEC. 29. The Sensex today ended at another peak of 6567.94 on the Bombay Stock Exchange even as heavy profit taking pared sharp gains after the index pierced through the crucial 6600-barrier and hit an all time high of 6617.15 in early trade.

Early rally in shares was attributed to unabated foreign funds' buying and a firm trend on Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose by 78.41 points and 22.97 points yesterday.

But profit taking at sharply higher levels ahead of the expiry of the December contract in Futures & Options segment tomorrow kept gains to the minimum, dealers said.

Front-line IT shares such as Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computer and Wipro attracted fresh buying interest and helped the Sensex to close in the positive terrain.

Top heavyweight and petrochem giant Reliance Industries remained in the limelight after the company announced buyback of shares at Rs. 570 and closed with marked gains.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index resumed remarkably higher at 6594.39 against yesterday's close of 6563.48 and immediately touched a new intra-day peak of 6617.15. Later, fresh profit selling at higher levels pulled down index to a low of 6552.06 before concluding at 6567.94.

The Reserve Bank of India had yesterday, on growing concerns over the rising stock market, increased the margins on all bank advances against shares from 40 per cent to 50 per cent to cool the overheated share market as a prudent risk mitigation measures.

The broad-based BSE-100 index eased by 2.25 points to 3559.74.

The volume of business was lower at Rs. 2,144.33 crores against Rs. 2,313.76 crores. RIL were the top traded scrip with the highest turnover of Rs. 150.79 crores followed by Tata Steel (Rs. 103.68 crores), Tata Teleservices (Rs. 81.10 crores), Infosys Technologies (Rs. 56.97 crores) and SBI (Rs. 55.52 crores).

The BSE-200 and the Dollex-200 were quoted lower at 879.78 and 334.88 against 881.59 and 335.26 respectively. The BSE-500 edged down by 6.90 points to 2755.71 while the Dollex-30 ended higher at 1232.80 against 1230.84.

— PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business