Heavy buying by operators and domestic institutions, coupled with substantial retail buying, pushed volumes on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to a record high of 329.1 million shares today.
The exchange has been reporting high volumes for the last two days. On May 27 and 28, it reported trades in 275 million and 266.9 million shares, respectively.
The volume traded on the NSE today was almost double the 162.7 million shares traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
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The previous high of the NSE in terms of shares traded was 279.6 million on February 28, 2001. The all-time high on the BSE was the 186.4 million shares traded on July 9, 2002.
The surge in volumes was driven mainly by banking stocks. Of the 10 toppers in terms of volume, five were banking stocks.
The Steel Authority of India recorded the highest volume of 21 million shares, followed by Canara Bank with 16.2 million, Bank of Baroda 14.5 million, Satyam Computer 13.6 million, Himachal Futuristic 13.2 million, Andhra Bank 12.2 million and Punjab National Bank 12.1 million.
Hectic buying translated into the BSE sensitivity index consolidating above the psychological 3,100 mark for the second consecutive day, ending at a near seven-week high of 3,164.25.
The climb was helped by sustained buying support in old as well as new-economy blue-chips. The NSE S&P CNX Nifty gained 11.8 points to close at 1,002.6.
The market remained bullish on hopes of more inflows from foreign institutional investors, which were net buyers to the tune of Rs 184 crore yesterday, according to the latest data released by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
A number of bank stocks touched their 52-week highs after reports that the government did not propose to charge a premium on equity returned by public sector banks.