Sensex up 145 points at 13,282

There was no stopping the stock market today after strong fund buying on better-than-expected economic figures for September propelled both the Bombay Stock Exchange's (BSE's) bellwether Sensex and the S&P CNX Nifty to a new life-time high.

The Sensex rose 145.42 points, or 1.11 per cent, to close at 13,282.91, while the Nifty ended at 3,834.75, registering a gain of 38.35 points or 1.01 per cent.

"The economic growth statistics will reaffirm that the India story is intact. Though the valuations may appear to be stretched, with the kind of growth we are seeing it appears that the valuations are justified," said a fund manager with a domestic mutual fund.

Data released by the government today showed that the Indian economy grew by 11.4 per cent in September, reflecting sustained domestic demand and surge in exports, despite rising oil prices.

Major gainers in the Sensex were ICICI Bank, which soared by 4.08 per cent to Rs 832, followed by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (up 3.03 per cent to Rs 2,456), HDFC Bank (up 2.65 per cent to Rs 1,044), Gujarat Ambuja Cements (up 2.63 per cent to Rs 135), Larsen & Toubro (up 2.02 per cent to Rs 1,337) and Dr Reddy's (up 2.02 per cent to Rs 789).

Cipla was a major loser of the day, after the stock shed 1.22 per cent to Rs 268. Other Sensex losers included Satyam (down 0.89 per cent to Rs 424), ITC (0.56 per cent to Rs 186) and HDFC (down 0.54 per cent to Rs 1,495).

The bullish sentiment in the market today was in sharp contrast to Asian markets where the trading was dull. Japan was down 0.53 per cent, Hong Kong 0.33 per cent and Korea ended lower by 0.27 per cent.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,583 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,261 advanced, 1,227 declined and 95 ended unchanged.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Bankex, which surged 2.43 per cent to Rs 6,737, was the biggest gainer. It was followed by the BSE Consumer Goods Index (up 1.53 per cent to Rs 8,831), the BSE Oil & Gas Index (up 1.25 per cent to Rs 6,264) and the BSE Consumer Durables Index (up 1 per cent to Rs 3,264).

Reliance Industries registered a turnover of Rs 338.59 crore on the BSE followed by Indiabulls (Rs 166.02 crore), Tech Mahindra (Rs 106.92 crore), HDFC (Rs 78.57 crore) and Hindustan Zinc (Rs 67.09 crore).

The initial public offerings (IPOs) by real estate developers Parsvanath Developers Ltd and Lanco Infratech also reflected the strong bullish sentiment.

While Parsvanath Developers' IPO was oversubscribed by over 57 times, the Lanco Infratech IPO was oversubscribed by over 11 times on the last day of its closing. The retail portion in Parsvanath was oversubcribed by 1.84 times and for Lanco, the figure was only 0.34 times.