Powered by buoyant trading sentiment, indices across the major bourses continued to race northwards for the third successive day. The 30-scrip Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index pierced the psychological 4,000-mark and jumped to a new 52-week high of 4,060.45 before ending the day at 4,029.99, a gain of 47.04 points over the previous close of 3,982.95.
The sensex had last crossed the 4,000 mark on March 1, 1997, a day after Union finance minister P Chidambaram announced the 1997-98 budget. The trend at the markets will now be clearly governed by factors like speculative buying and the selling pressure from domestic financial institutions, if any. One of the main factors responsible for the sharp upsurge in the markets this week has been the considerable easing of selling pressure from FIs.
While some marketmen feel that the rally has peaked, a section expects the rally to continue till the government arrives at a decision on the oil price hike.
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The National Stock Exchange-50 (Nifty) gained 15.60 points over the previous close of 1,120.70 to close at 1,136.30. The NSE recorded a huge turnover of Rs 2,515.52 crore for the day, while the corresponding figure for the BSE was Rs 989.49 crore. Most of the activity was concentrated on the pivotals and a handful of B1 scrips.
Among the pivotals, ITC touched a new 52-week high of Rs 544 and Rs 543 at the BSE and NSE respectively during intra-day trading. The scrip finally closed at Rs 535 on the BSE, a gain of Rs 14.50 over the previous close and at Rs 534.15 on the NSE, a gain of Rs 19.65. Reliance, however, lost ground after touching new highs at both BSE and NSE. It closed at Rs 319.50 on the BSE, down Rs 4 over the previous close and at Rs 322.90 on the NSE, a loss of Rs 1.10. The Telco scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs 430 on the BSE before closing at Rs 422.50 on heavy profit booking.
Other index scrips which touched new highs during intra-day trading were Hind Lever, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and Nestle.
Oil and software scrips finally ran out of steam yesterday on sustained profit taking. Software majors Infosys Technologies and Tata Infotech took a plunge while among the refinery scrips, Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL), the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Madras Refineries and Cochin Refineries closed lower than their previous closing prices. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), however, turned out to be an exception with the scrip touching new highs at the major bourses during intra-day trading. It c losed at Rs 428.75 on the BSE, up Rs 28 over the previous close while it gained Rs 16 at the NSE to close at Rs 427.40.