Sensex scales 17k in intra-day trade

The Sensex crossed a new milestone of 17,000 "" a gain of over 1,000 points in six consecutive sessions "" on big inflows from foreign funds, short-covering in blue-chips and value buying in battered information technology (IT) stocks.

The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) steps to curtail the rise in the rupee yesterday also encouraged investors to buy stocks early in the session, anticipating a fall in the currency value, which would boost earnings of export-led sectors, including IT.

The BSE Sensex closed at 16,921.39 "" a new life high close "" after hitting the day's high of 17,073.87, up 1,133.08 points since September 19, when the index crossed 16,000. This is a gain of about 7 per cent. 
 

THE JOURNEY SO FAR
From	To	Date	Trading days
10082.28	11079.02	03/27/2006	33
11079.02	12039.55	04/20/2006	14
12039.55	13024.26	10/30/2006	135
13024.26	14014.92	01/03/2007	46
14014.92	15045.73	07/09/2007	127
15045.73	16322.75	09/19/2007	51
16322.75	16921.39*	09/26/2007	5
*Intra day high 17073.87

The Sensex has risen nearly 3,000 points from June 12 when the sub-prime mortgage turmoil in the US forced foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to sell stocks in emerging markets, including India.

FIIs, which bought a net of Rs 7,533.84 crore worth stocks in the last five trading sessions (excluding Wednesday), were the key drivers for the rally from 16,000 to 17,000.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty Index closed at 4,940.50, up 1.65 points, or 0.03 per cent, from yesterday, nearly 60 points away from the 5,000-mark.

IT stocks led the rally on Wednesday after investors started buying stocks such as Infosys Technologies (up 3 per cent to Rs 1,824.30), TCS (up 3.88 per cent to Rs 1,041), Satyam Computers (up 4.81 per cent to Rs 431.30) and Wipro (up 4.33 per cent to Rs 454.60). The BSE IT Index shot up by 3.53 per cent, the biggest riser among all indices on Wednesday.

Rupee strengthens on heavy inflows: Heavy foreign exchange inflows led the spot rupee to open stronger at 39.66 against a closing of 39.73/74 to dollar on Tuesday. Inflows included both portfolio investments by the FIIs and panic selling of dollars by exporters.

Nationalised banks, however, bought dollars heavily on behalf of the RBI, which has been intervening for the last few days to check the sharp appreciation of rupee.

"But for RBI's intervention, the spot rupee could have breached the crucial barrier of 39.50 to a dollar," said a dealer with a foreign bank.

Importers also rushed to buy dollars to cover month-end requirements for oil payments. The spot rupee closed lower at 39.70/71.