The Hindu : Business : Sensex crosses 11000-mark

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 28, 2006

Business

Business

Sensex crosses 11000-mark

Metal and fast moving consumer goods stocks remain in the forefront

MUMBAI: Powered by sustained and heavy fund inflows, the stock market benchmark index on Monday soared by a steep 129 points to a new closing peak of 11,079.02, registering sharp gains for the second consecutive session even as select heavyweight counters reached dizzy heights. The price rally was so intense that the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark 30-share index (Sensex) gained by 238.43 points or 2.2 per cent in the last two sessions.

The Sensex started on a strong footing at 10,996.36 and gradually moved upwards to an all-time intra-trade record high of 11,101.42 and even closed the day at a new closing peak of 11,079.02 against Friday's close of 10,950.30, a net rise of 128.72 points or 1.18 per cent. Crediting the market's impressive advance to liquidity amid concerns over liquidity crunch faced by financial system, market players said ``institutions are believed to be directing funds to soaring bourses.'' Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and local mutual funds poured in their investments into equity, particularly index-based stocks pushing them to dizzy heights, they added.

The FIIs reported fairly heavy inflows during last week, taking the total net investments to Rs. 4,831 crore in equity so far in the month.

Domestic mutual funds made net purchases of Rs. 424.83 crore in the last week and their net investments amounted to Rs. 2,948 crore so far in March.

Operators and retailers seemed to be covering their short positions in derivatives in view of approaching expiry of the contract.

Metal and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks remained in the forefront following hectic buying support. As a result, the BSE Metal Index flared up by another 315.19 points or 3.85 per cent to a new record high of 8498.71.

The volume of business zoomed to Rs. 6,162.90 crore from Rs. 4,551.53 crore on Friday.

RIL were the top traded scrip with the highest turnover of Rs. 1,338.12 crore followed by Tata Steel (Rs. 176.05 crore), HDFC (Rs. 152.33 crore), SAIL (Rs. 147.59 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs. 139.44 crore).

The broad-based BSE-100 index firmed up further by 58.04 points to 5804.50. The BSE-200 and the Dollex-200 were quoted up at 1386.76 and 516.98 against 1373.54 and 512.05 respectively. The BSE-500 improved by 46.30 points to 4425.32 and the Dollex-30 ended higher at 2036.69 against 2013.03. — PTI

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