Weekly Mkt Review: Sensex, Nifty hit new peaks

Favourable corporate news and comfortable liquidity helped push the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) index, Sensex, to 13,130.79 - a gain of 223.98 points, or 1.74%, during the week ended November 3.

The S&P CNX Nifty ended at an all-time high of 3,805.35, a gain of 66 points, or 1.77%, over last weekend's close of 3,739.35.

The major trigger for the rally was RIL's move to invest $5.2 billion to double output from its prolific D6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin to 80 million standard cubic meters per day.

RIL, which came close to the Rs 1,300-mark during trading, was one of the sharp gainers, and alone contributed about 80 points to the Sensex gains.

Bharti Airtel, too, logged hefty gains following the company's $400 million network outsourcing deal with Nokia.

The government's approval for the construction of 1,000 kms of expressways under phase VI of the National Highway Development Programme and Finance Minister P Chidambaram's confidence in over 8% GDP growth this fiscal also propped up the market.

Cement and construction shares attracted attention after the news of the clearance of expressways through public private partnership (PPP) on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis costing Rs 16,680 crore.

Though inflation touched a four-month high of 5.41%, and Chidambaram expressing caution that some sectors of the economy were showing "signals of overheating", brokers feel the economic growth projections for the fiscal were quite encouraging.