50% stocks hit life-time highs in first half

Almost 50 per cent of actively traded stocks hit their life-time highs in the first six-and-a-half month of calendar 2005. The across-the-market rally saw prices of 1,211 of 2,441 stocks hitting the roof between January and July.

The number has been rising steadily since the beginning of 2005. For instance, in January, share prices of 45 companies rose to their all-time highs. The number rose to 59 in February and 100 in March.

With a 600 points correction in the Sensex, the number came down to 50 in April. The very next month, 162 companies saw their prices hitting all-time highs. With the Sensex crossing the 7000 level in June, the number rose to 389.

With the benchmark as well as sectoral indices, except for IT index, scaling new highs every day, the number of stocks hitting their all-time highs has increased to 393 in the fist 11 trading days of July.

Small and mid-cap stocks top the chart with 85 per cent comprising Z group stocks. Of the 203 stocks traded in the Z group, 172 hit their new peaks during the period.

There are 235 stocks (62 per cent) from S group, 286 stocks (55 per cent) from B1 group and 265 stocks (51 per cent) from B group.

Z stocks are those which have not complied with and are in breach of provisions of the listing agreement, while those belong to the S group are companies with a paid up capital of Rs 3 crore to Rs 20 crore.

The B1 stocks are medium market cap companies with strong fundamentals and those belonging to B group are small cap companies with low trading volumes.

The A group stocks have been the bottom of the ladder with 86 (42.79 per cent) stocks hitting their life-time highs.

The stocks trading in trade-to-trade segment have not participated in the rally with only 87 (14.92 per cent) out of 583 stocks traded under trade-to-trade group hitting their lifetime highs.

The A group denotes companies with big market cap with high volumes of trading. All scrips which are settled on "Trade to Trade" basis are under regulator's surveillance.

As many as 18 Sensex stocks hit the roof in the current calendar year, with nine racing to their life-time highs in the current month.