Liquidity drives Sensex up 97 pts

Investor wealth up Rs 1,00,000 cr in seven days.

Investors have never had it so good. The market capital on the Bombay Stock Exchange increased by over Rs 1 trillion (Rs 1,03,873 crore) in just seven trading sessions between September 8 and 16.

Consequently, the number of $1-billion market cap companies has risen to 86 from 82 last week.

Riding high on strong foreign fund investment and all-round bullishness on robust corporate earnings, shares hit yet another high today. The 30-share Sensex ended 97.20 points higher at 8380.96 points, gaining 4 per cent on the week. The Nifty closed at 28.40 points, or 1.13 per cent, at 2552.35.

The foreign institutional investors, the major drivers of the markets, have invested $8.18 billion in the Indian equity markets in the first eight-and-a-half months.

This is 96 per cent ($8.518 billion) of the total investments made by the FIIs in the entire calendar year 2004.

Fuelled by the foreign fund flow, the Sensex has risen 27 per cent this year and become Asia's second-best performing market index after South Korea's KOSPI.

In percentage terms, the market cap of traded stocks increased by 4.76 per cent "" from Rs 21,79,601 crore on September 8 to Rs 22,83,473 crore today. The market caps of Sensex stocks rose by 5.46 per cent or Rs 50,000 crore from Rs 10,39,451 crore to Rs 10,91,412 crore.
 

Market on a roll Sensex scrips which hit their lifetime highs
	Day's High	Day's Close
Bharti Tele	365.50	362.80
Grasim Ind	1,410.00	1,390.40
HDFC	1,079.90	1,064.45
NTPC	105.45	104.80
ONGC	1,034.00	1021.60
Reliance Ind	767.50	764.45
Major gainers of the day
	Close	% Chg
HDFC	1,064.45	6.36
Bharti Tele	362.80	5.77
Maruti Udyog	561.85	3.48
L&T	1,360.35	3.04
NTPC	104.80	2.44

Of the Sensex stocks , Grasim Industries (Rs 1,390.40), HDFC (Rs 1,064.45), ONGC (Rs 1,021.60), Reliance Industries (Rs 764.45), Bharti Tele-Ventures (Rs 362.80), NTPC (Rs 104.80) and Gujarat Ambuja Cement (Rs 73.55) closed at their all-time highs on the BSE today.

Twenty-one stocks have seen their market caps increasing by more than Rs 1,000 crore while 18 others gained between Rs 500 crore and Rs 1,000 crore over the last seven trading sessions.

Bharti Tele-Ventures grabbed the fifth position with a market cap of Rs 68,068 crore, replacing Infosys Technologies. In the past seven trading days, the market cap of Bharti Tele-Ventures swelled by Rs 7,083 crore.

Infosys Technologies added a Rs 5,933-crore market cap, lifting it to Rs 66,469 crore

ICICI Bank added a Rs 5,933-crore market cap, ONGC Rs 5,590 crore, Reliance Industries Rs 4,935 crore and HDFC Rs 4,047 crore during the period.

The rise in market valuation was across the board, with 104 sectors of 112 tracked by the Business Standard Research Bureau gaining in the last seven trading sessions.

Among the sectors, market caps of 38 banks increased by Rs 16,943 crore to Rs 2,44,674 crore. Technology stocks added Rs 10,121 crore (Rs 2,85,406 crore), refineries, Rs 8,239.57 crore (Rs 2,41,630 crore), and telecommunications, Rs 7,921 crore (Rs 99,741 crore).