Markets on auto pilot

STOCK REPORT

Notwithstanding pressure from retail investors, the Sensex on Friday climbed to new peaks on the back of a sharp rally in auto stocks bolstered by remarkable rise in sales of two-wheelers and cars in August as also sustained FII inflows.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex hit an all-time intra-day high of 7928.07 at the initial stages of trading, breaching the previous peaks of 7921.39 touched on August 18.

The Sensex later ended at a new record high of 7899.77 as against yesterday's close of 7876.15, a net gain of 23.62 points or 0.30 per cent.

Attributing the Sensex's fall to the day's low of 7836.34 in late morning trades to selling due to week-end profit sales, brokers said the market witnessed a smart rally during latter part of session on fresh purchases by institutional investors.

Foreign institutional investors seemed to have stepped up activity in the week.

FIIs reported net investments of Rs 638.70 crore in the first three days of the week while private mutual funds were net buyers to the tune of Rs 361.02 crore in the same period.

The sentiment was aided by firm trend in Southeast Asian markets during the day.

Auto stocks like Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda and Maruti Udyog scored impressive gains. Other major gainers in blue chips included Tata Steel, RIL, SBI, ITC, Dr Reddy's, HDFC Bank, Bharti Tele-Ventures, ACC, Tata Power and ONGC