Reliance, Energy, Infy, Satyam main drivers

Reliance Industries, Reliance Energy, Infosys Technologies and Satyam Computer today pulled up the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex to a historic 7,000 during intra-day trading on Monday.

The four shares, which closed at new 52-week highs, contributed 81.61 points to the all-time Sensex closing high of 6984.85.

As many as 17 shares in the 30-scrip index gained ground, contributing 109.59 points, while 13 fell, deleting 31.56 points from the Sensex gains.

However, between the two peaks of the Sensex "" 6915 in March and 6985 today "" the top five Sensex stocks contributed 215.43 points with Reliance Industries alone adding 57 points and Infosys Technology 48 points.

ITC, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), ICICI Bank and Bajaj Auto also chipped in substantially between March 8, 2005 and today.

Reliance Industries, which has the second highest weightage (10.59 per cent) in the Sensex, is the major contributor accounting for 57 points rise.

During the period, the share rose 6.75 per cent to Rs 630.40, while its weightage in Sensex moved up from 9.88 per cent to 10.59 per cent today.

Infosys Technologies, which has the highest weightage of 11.22 per cent, contributed 47.71 points to the Sensex by rising 4.91 per cent from Rs 2,264.19 on March 8 and Rs 2,375.50 today.

ITC (47.12 points), Satyam Computer (41.56 points) and HDFC (22.11 points) were the other major contributors of Sensex.

Bajaj Auto accounted for a 19.86 points rise in the Sensex, ICICI Bank 13.74 points and Reliance Energy 11.10 points.

Reliance Energy, ONGC and Wipro accounted over 10 points apiece, and Bharati Tele-Ventures and Hindustan Lever contributed 8.82 points and 6.94 points, respectively.

Metal stocks Tata Steel and Hindalco, power companies Tata Power and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) , banking major SBI and HDFC Bank, TCS and Grasim Industries were among the prominent losers, accounting for a 243.44 points' decline in the Sensex in the last three-and-a-half months.

These stocks were also responsible for restricting the National Stock Exchange S&P CNX Nifty from closing at an all-time high.

The index ended at 2144.35 today, 24.60 points off its peak of 2168.95 seen on March 8.

NTPC, the newly included Sensex share, reported a 73.62 points fall during the period. Tata Steel accounted a 52.15 point fall. The other Tata group stocks, Tata Motors contributed 21.85 points, TCS 14.38 points and Tata Power 6.04 points to the fall in the barometer.

Grasim Industries (28.69 points) and Hindalco (26.55 points) combined accounted for a total 55.24 points fall, while SBI accounted a 20.71 points fall in last three and half months.