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Smart gains in blue chips lifted the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex 1.26 per cent (74.70 points) today to close at 6,011.66 points, and once again bringing the index above the 6,000-mark.

The Steel Authority of India scrip surged almost 7 per cent to Rs 47.15 and the Tata Steel scrip gained nearly 3 per cent to Rs 439.30 on hectic fund-based buying.

Wipro rose 3.01 per cent to Rs 1,627.65, Satyam Computer closed 1.79 per cent per higher at Rs 338.25 and the Infosys Technologies scrip ended with 0.44 per cent gains at Rs 5,377.40. Elsewhere, Cipla surged 3.53 per cent at Rs 1,217.50. and Ranbaxy gained 1.85 per cent at Rs 1,000.05.

"Sentiment has improved on sustained buying by foreign and domestic funds," said Sanjay Panicker, a dealer with Darashaw Broking & Investments. Foreign Institutional Investor (FII) inflows have been strong in 2004 with FIIs making net purchases of Rs 135.7 crore on February 12.

But the current rally in the markets which has brought the sensex back to the 6,000 levels after a gap of some 40 days is only confined to index stocks. Only one in 10 actively traded stocks is quoted above its price on January 2, 2004 when the BSE Sensex crossed the landmark 6000 level for the first time. Indeed, the BSE 500 at 2,364.20 is 4.73 per cent lower than January 2's levels.

Even in the 30 Sensex stocks, gainers and losers are equally weighted at 1:1, that is 15 appreciated between January 2 and February 13, while 15 are ruling lower now. The 15 Sensex stocks have appreciated by 8.8 per cent in the aggregate while the other 15 Sensex stocks have fallen 11.34 per cent, in the aggregate.

But the plight of non-index stocks is even worse. Almost 88 per cent (1,961 stocks) out of the 2,229 actively traded stocks are still below their prices on January 2. In the aggregate, market capitalisation of 2,229 stocks has declined by 5.42 per cent while that of 1,961 stocks has declined by 12.47 per cent.

The Bharti Tele-Ventures scrip which was included in the Sensex on November 10, 2003 has appreciated 40.43 per cent between January 2 and February 13 while BSES has gained 22.52 per cent, Tata Motors has gained 21.09 per cent and Tata Power 19.88 per cent.

Among losers, the ONGC scrip is down 19.81 per cent, Dr Reddy's Laboratories down 13.45 per cent, Cipla down 12.95 per cent while Satyam Computer, Ranbaxy Laboratories and Bajaj are down over 9 per cent each.