The Hindu : Business : Sensex zooms 342 points

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Saturday, Jan 05, 2008
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Sensex zooms 342 points

MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange turned bullish on Friday with its benchmark Sensex surging 342 points to a new peak on robust buying in heavyweights such as Reliance Industries, ONGC and ICICI Bank.

The BSE 30-share barometer index settled 341.69 points higher at 20686.89 after hitting an intra-day peak of 20762.80.

The index closed at 20345.20 on Thursday.

ICICI Bank was the top gainer with a surge of about 4.7 per cent, while a number of bluechips such as Reliance Industries, ONGC, Reliance Communication, DLF, L&T and HDFC rose between 2 per cent and 4.5 per cent.

The NSE’s 50-share Nifty also scaled a new intra-day peak of 6300.05 before closing at a life-time high of 6274.30 against 6178.55, a net gain of 95.75 points.

The sentiment was boosted by a pick-up in foreign institutional investment activity as global bourses rallied sharply, marketmen said.

Among Asian indices, the Hang Seng and Nikkei closed up 2.35 per cent and 4.03 per cent respectively.

On the BSE, the small-cap and the mid-cap shares witnessed brisk activity during the first half of the session, but later came under pressure due to profit taking by investors.

Shares of banking, capital goods, FMCG, metal and oil and gas sectors attracted hectic buying support and closed with smart gains. — PTI

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