| It was an all-time closing high for the Sensex, Nifty as well as the CNX Midcap Index. The CNX Midcap Index closed up 21.05 points or 0.48 per cent at 4,368.90 after touching 4,388. "The market has not lost its steam. The rally may continue till the Budget, even though the movement may not be very sharp," said a fund manager. |
| Meanwhile, Finance Minister P Chidambaram asked Sebi Chairman M Damodaran to keep a close vigil on the market and cautioned investors to take informed decisions and invest wisely. |
| "Do your research and invest wisely. If you can't, invest through mutual funds or other intermediaries," he said. |
| "Surveillance is of concern to the Sebi Chairman and it was precisely why we had a meeting. As a minister, it is my duty to get a report from him and advise him to remain as vigilant as a regulator should be. I believe, he is vigilant," he said after a meeting with Damodaran here. |
| Advising investors to take informed decisions, Damodaran said, "We have not become less vigilant when the Sensex was 9,999 and more vigilant when it is 10,000. We are keeping vigil." |
| "The approach to investment need not change. Investment is a function of risk appetite of the investor, how he reads the market and his bet on the future," he added. |
| However, fund buying continued to be strong despite weakness in other Asian markets. Brokers said the robust GDP estimate for 2005-06 (April-March) announced by the Central Statistical Organisation today also helped boost sentiment. |
| Trading activity was strong but the market breadth was disappointing. Losers on the BSE outnumbered advancing stocks in the ratio of 1.4:1. While 55 per cent of shares in the A group gained, the B1 and B2 group saw 53 per cent and 60 per cent of shares ending in the red. The total turnover of the two exchanges stood at Rs 11,600 crore compared with Rs 10,900 crore on Monday. |
| The Sensex which opened today with a positive gap of 13 points at 9,993, slipped to touch a low of 9,972. But it recovered soon and rallied past the 10,000-mark. |
| Profit-taking in intra-day deals saw the index pare gains only to bounce back with vigour to touch a new all-time intra-day high of 10,100. |
| The BSE Bankex rallied 2.7 per cent to 5,303, Auto Index rose 2.2 per cent to 4,692 and the FMCG Index gained 1.7 per cent to 1,784. The market breadth, however, was slightly negative. Out of the 2,571 stocks traded, 1,470 declined, 1,032 advanced and the rest closed flat today. While 213 scrips hit the upper limits, 210 hit the lower circuits today. |
| The list of big gainers included Tata Motors which rallied 3.7 per cent to Rs 762, Maruti which gained 2.6 per cent at Rs 755, HDFC Bank which gained 3.7 per cent to Rs 772, and ICICI Bank which gained 3.4 per cent to Rs 628. ITC moved up 2.5 per cent to Rs 161 and HLL notched up a gain of 1.7 per cent at Rs 198. |
| In the pharmaceuticals sector, Cipla spurted over 3 per cent to Rs 512 and Dr Reddy's was up 2.3 per cent at Rs 1,218. Ranbaxy, however, slipped 1.8 per cent to Rs 407. |
| Infosys and Wipro advanced 1 per cent each to Rs 2,871 and Rs 520, respectively. |
| Among other gainers, Bharat Forge zoomed 9 per cent to Rs 415, Ashok Leyland soared nearly 7 per cent to Rs 37.50 followed by Tube Investment, which was up nearly 6 per cent at 614. Dwarikesh Sugar hit the 20 per cent upper limit at Rs 272. |
| MTNL moved up 5.3 per cent to close at Rs 141 on reports that the company would get Rs 1,233 crore tax relief. The counter clocked a healthy volume of around 13.42 lakh shares today. |
| Among the losers, ONGC shed 1.6 per cent to Rs 1,171 and Reliance Energy and HDFC declined 1 per cent each to Rs 595 and Rs 1,325, respectively. |
| More stories on the 10,000 magic :- Sensex atop magic mountain Local investors swim with dollar tide 99 firms join $1 billion market cap club Sectoral indices join the party Some stood the test of time, others faltered Prices of 38 scrips doubled in current rally Sixty-three stocks close at all-time highs on BSE Dalal St took 20 yrs to scale 10K peak Small investors will still invest |
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