Sensex at 46-mth high of 5,699

The benchmark BSE Sensex ended a shade shy of the 5,700 mark, closing at 5,699.24, a 46-month closing high.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty closed at an all-time high of 1,837.05 points, up 28.35 points over Wednesday's close.

With today's 57.32 point gain, the Sensex has gained almost 18 per cent in five straight weeks and is now up about 69 per cent in 2003 "" making it Asia's second-best performer after Thailand.

The Sensex has gained a 1,000 points since October 25, 2003.

Market sources said today's buying support was entirely on account of expectations of good quarterly performance by the corporate sector. The first burst of results for the quarter ended December 2003 will be out in another fortnight.

"To add to that, there is a general optimism that FII allocations for India will be finalised in early January, which should lead to strong FII inflows from day one," a dealer with an institutional brokerage said.

Offshore funds have added a net $1.08 billion worth of local shares to their portfolios in December, taking their net investments in 2003 to $6.38 billion -- the highest purchases in any single year since foreign funds were first allowed to invest in local shares a decade ago.

Heavyweight State Bank of India scrip was up 2.80 per cent at Rs 522.45 and Hindustan Lever was up 0.92 per cent at Rs 202.60.

Cement pivotal ACC was up 7.48 per cent at Rs 249.35, Gujarat Ambuja Cements was up 5.19 per cent at Rs 310.25 and Grasim was up 4.28 per cent at Rs 1,020.

Pharma heavyweights Ranbaxy Labs was up 2.99 per cent at Rs 1,098.80, Cipla was up 1.61 per cent at Rs 1,286.85 and Dr Reddy's Labs was up 0.59 per cent at Rs 1,423.10.