Global rally hoists Sensex to 11,707

A broad global rally, fed by expectations that the soon-to-be-released minutes of US Fed's last meeting may point towards a longer pause on interest rate hikes, today saw Indian indices come closer to their all-time highs reached three months ago.

The Sensex, recording its fourth straight gain today, closed seven points above the psychologically important 11,700 mark, up 87 points, or 0.75 per cent. The 50-stock Nifty, too, was up 0.72 per cent at 3,426.

The markets witnessed a strong opening with positive cues, including a 0.6 per cent overnight rally on the Dow Jones Average, and a 250-point rally on the Japanese Nikkei, but gave up some of the gains during subsequent profit booking.

Maruti, up by 2.9 per cent, Sun Pharma and ITC, both up by 2.5 per cent, led the gainers on the Nifty, which saw 27 of the 50 stocks advance by the end of trading.

Among the losers were petroleum PSU stocks like IPCL and BPCL, both of which slid by around 1.5 per cent. The biggest loser on the Nifty was HLL, which gave up 2.25 per cent of its value, followed by Tata Steel, which fell 2 per cent over the day.

Stock movement was across the board today, with both sectoral and segmental indices showing similar trends.

All the sectoral barometers on the BSE except metal ended higher, while the PSU and IT and Consumer Durables indices outshone the others, with gains higher than those of the main indices.

Market breadth, the ratio of the number of advancing stocks to the declining ones, fell consistently throughout the day, as investors booked profits ahead of uncertainties associated with global markets.

The negative sentiment also saw the small and mid-cap indices, which had kept pace with the others in the morning, give up most of their gains to end flat on the BSE.

In all, 55 per cent of A stocks on the BSE advanced, while the B1 category saw 42 per cent gainers. The Sensex is now only 7.5 per cent below its all-time high of around 12,600, while the mid-cap and the small-cap indices are below their mid-May levels by 20 and 25 per cent, respectively.

Foreign funds have bought shares nearly worth $800 million this month, taking their total investment this year to $3.6 billion.