Sensex hits12k intraday

Stock markets continued to rally for the third consecutive day on Thursday with the benchmark BSE-30 Sensex rising past the psychologically important 12,000-mark in intra-day trades to touch 12,004, before slipping to close at 11,973.03. This is a gain of 79.23 points or 0.67 per cent from Wednesday.

The last time the Sensex traded above the 12,000-mark was four months back on May 15. The first time ever the Sensex crossed the 12,000-level was on April 20 this year. The broadbased NSE's S&P CNX Nifty rose by 17.05 points or 0.49 per cent to close at 3,472 points.

"We might test the 12,000-mark again tomorrow, but there are some selling pressure coming at these levels. Investors still have not recovered from the sharp fall in prices in June," said a dealer with a foreign broking house.

The market breadth showed that the mood was mixed. On the BSE, out of the 2,569 stocks traded, 1,367 stocks ended lower than yesterday's close while 1,137 stocks ended up. Sixty five stocks remained unchanged. The market turnover at Rs 33,788.21 crore was also better than the recent average, analysts said.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Bankex was up 1.59 per cent at 5536, followed by the BSE Metal index (up 1.04 per cent at 8314) and the BSE IT index (up 0.86 per cent at 4348).

Top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank (up 3.13 per cent to Rs 651), Grasim (2.78 per cent to Rs 2,392), Gujarat Ambuja (1.77 per cent at Rs 115), Bajaj Auto (1.70 per cent to Rs 2,825) and TCS (1.48 per cent to Rs 1,829).

Leading losers include Hero Honda, which slipped for the second day in a row to Rs 766 points, down 1.64 per cent from Wednesday.

HDFC shed 1.16 per cent to Rs 1,137, followed by HDFC Bank (down 1.12 per cent at Rs 864) and Reliance Energy (down 1.04 per cent at Rs 466). Foreign institutional investors were net buyers for Rs 288.41 crore on Thursday, as per the provisional figures.