Sensex stops shy of 8,000 mark

The Sensex scaled another peak on Monday but just stopped short of crossing the 8000 milestone. The market opened on a firm note with the Sensex touching an intra-day high of 7983 but slipped to close at 7925, up 25 points from Friday's close. The Nifty closed 8 points up, ending the session at 2423.

The market breadth was positive but weakened substantially towards the latter part of the trading session. Gainers outpaced losers by a ratio of 1.3:1, sharply down from the 3:1 witnessed in early trade.

Marketmen were divided on the future course of the market. Some analysts still maintain that the fundamentals remained strong with corporate earnings expected to grow at 15-18 per cent, and should stand the stock markets in good stead.

Some others feared that the relentless rise in the crude oil prices might impede the performance of global markets, including India's. With crude oil prices hovering around $67 a barrel, there are concerns about its effect on inflation, interest rates and corporate profits across world economies. Stock markets, however, seem to be least worried with strong liquidity flows propelling the market.

"At the moment, the market seems to ignoring the effect of rising crude oil prices. Since the crude oil prices will hurt economies worldwide, it can have implications for global interest rates and liquidity," said the research head of a domestic broking firm. FII inflows continue to be strong.

Domestic mutual funds are also flush with funds because of good response from investors for new fund offerings. "The strong momentum continues and there is enough buying that is helping the market to sustain gains," said a dealer.

Major information technology stocks witnessed profit-booking towards the end of the session with TCS, Satyam and Infosys closing one per cent lower.

On the contrary, strong cement despatch figures for August saw renewed buying interest in cement stocks such as ACC, Gujarat Ambuja, India Cements and Birla Corp.