Buying binge marks moorat trading

Sensex tops 6000, retracts on profit booking.

Marking the beginning of Samvat 2061, moorat trading started with a bang, before profit booking set in at higher levels.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex crossed the magic 6,000 mark, to touch an intra-day high of 6001.99 before closing at 5964.01, up 9.7 points from Thursday's close.

The Nifty ended 2.40 points higher at 1,872.95.

A broker said, "Buying was seen almost across the board in early trade with players expecting Samvat year 2061 to be good, following improved economic and corporate fundamentals. However, there was profit booking at the fag end of the trade."

Gainers outpaced losers nearly 3:1, with 1,496 gainers and 508 losers. Volumes, however, were low "" Rs 508 crore during the 75-minute trade.

"Samvat 2061 is expected to be reasonably good with some kind of profit booking expected at 6,250 levels. Overall, barring a few concerns like high oil prices and inflation, the market looks good, driven by excess liquidity available in the system," said Nimesh Kampani, chairman and managing director, J M Morgan Stanley. In Samvat 2060, the Sensex gained nearly 1,200 points.

Friday's transactions will be merged with Tuesday's deals and settled together on November 18, 2004.

The Hindustan Lever scrip was down 0.19 per cent to Rs 134.15, the Reliance Industries scrip was down 0.02 per cent to Rs 545.35, while the ITC scrip was up 0.10 per cent to Rs 1,149.10. Others like ONGC at Rs 815.75 and State Bank of India at Rs 492.10 ended with marginal gains.