Soaring on FII wings

STOCKS REPORT

Strong institutional buying in blue chips helped the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex hit an all-time high on Thursday, ignoring higher international oil prices, brokers said.

Opening a tad above the 6700-level, the benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex closed strongly in the positive territory as investors bought frontline and mid-cap counters. Auto, oil, PSU, construction and technology counters were among the biggest gainers on Thursday.

In the BSE Sensex basket, 28 out of the 30 scrips closed higher. The breadth of the market was also positive, with gainers outpacing losers 3:1.

The BSE Sensex hit an all-time high of 6794.22 in intra-day trades before closing at 6784.72, up 97.83 points (1.46 per cent) from Wednesday's close.

Volumes were lower than on Wednesday in the cash segment of the bourses; the BSE reported a turnover of Rs 2,626.55 crore and the NSE reported a turnover of Rs 5,727.04 crore. Volumes have been higher on the bourses on account of a number of huge block deals, brokers said.

The market is largely happy with the Union Budget though some concerns have cropped up after the fine print was understood, brokers said.

While announcements of a cut in corporate tax and the emphasis on both rural and urban infrastructure development has been taken very positively, some sector specific concerns would lead to portfolio churns, they added.

Heavyweight ONGC firmed up on reports that the company has struck gas in the Krishna-Godavari region, analysts said. A hike in international oil prices also helped, they added.

Cipla was the biggest gainer in the Sensex basket, rising 3.95 per cent to close at Rs 268.40, followed by ONGC, up 3.88 per cent to Rs 889.50, Wipro was up 3.87 per cent to Rs 697.45, Bajaj Auto was up 3.81 per cent to Rs 1083.95 and Tata Motors was up 3.31 per cent to Rs 479. The two losers in the Sensex basket included L&T, down 1.19 per cent to Rs 1100.30 and Bharti Tele-Ventures fell 0.36 per cent to Rs 235.10.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Indian shares worth Rs 698.50 crore on Wednesday as per Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) data. Strong buying support from foreign funds helped the market record gains.