Sensex at 9,539 on dollar tide

Rs 1,86,873 cr added to investor wealth in 18 sessions.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index climbed above 9,500 points for the first time on Tuesday, boosted by robust foreign fund inflows into blue chip shares.

The Sensex has thus gained over 500 points in 18 trading days from 8,906.31 on December 8 to 9,539.37 on Tuesday.

Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 477.70 crore on Monday while mutual funds sold shares worth Rs 222.63 crore that day. 
 

TOP TEN GAINERS
	Jan 3	%Chg*
Grasim Ind	1,429.10	3.87
Dr Reddy's Labs	994.90	3.34
ACC	547.50	3.20
Maruti Udyog	665.75	3.19
HDFC	1229.65	2.99
Wipro	473.20	2.56
TCS	1731.50	2.46
Reliance Ind	919.50	2.34
Guj Amb Cem	81.09	2.26
Bharti Tele-Ven	346.35	2.02
*From Jan 2

The market capitalisation of the traded stocks hit a new high of Rs 25,49,762 crore, adding Rs 1,86,873 crore to investors' wealth in 18 trading sessions.

After a steady opening at 9,402,12 points above its last close, the index had come close to slipping into the red in early trades on profit-taking and touched the day's low of 9,390.79. It, however, made a smart recovery at this point on renewed buying support. The rally gathered steam towards the close on broad-based buying and ended with gains of 149.23 points at 9,539.37 while the Nifty advanced 47.40 points to close at 2883.35

The buying frenzy saw two Sensex stocks, Reliance Industries and ONGC, hit their all-time highs on Tuesday. As many as 122 stocks hit new peaks while 146 closed at their 52-week highs. As many as 884 stocks, accounting for 34 per cent of the traded scrips, hit the upper level of circuit filters on the BSE. Only 40 stocks were frozen at the lower level of circuit filters.

Leading the rally, Grasim surged 3.87 per cent to Rs 1,429.10, Dr Reddy's was up 3.34 per cent to Rs 994.90 and ACC surged 3.20 per cent to Rs 547.50.

Among the Sensex heavyweights, Reliance was up 2.34 per cent to Rs 919.50, Infosys gained 1.07 per cent to Rs 3010.65 while Bharti Tele-Ventures gained 2.02 per cent at Rs 346.35.

Pharma stocks attracted strong buying support. Merck shot up by 10.45 per cent at Rs 586.75, Pfizer logged gains of 9.95 per cent at Rs 1,132.40 and JB Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals added 6.65 per cent at Rs 104.20 and GSK Pharma moved up 6.38 per cent to close at Rs 1180.55.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,583 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,108 stocks advanced, 433 stocks declined and 42 stocks ended unchanged. The BSE mid-cap index rose 1.74 per cent at 4562.81 and the BSE small-cap index gained 1.94 per cent at 6144.43

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE healthcare index moved up by 1.90 per cent, the BSE IT index added 1.41 per cent and the BSE oil & gas index was up 1.75 per cent. Other sectoral indices also ended at higher levels.