Sensex ends at new high of 13,425.50 pts

Updated at 5.10pm

MUMBAI: Shares of key IT companies, which were in the limelight of trading, helped the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark Sensex end at yet another peak of 13,425.50 points on Tuesday as foreign funds and operators made selective purchases.

IT majors like TCS, Infosys and Satyam Computers attracted heavy buying interest during the day.

Continuing its record setting spree, the 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) scaled a new intra-trade peak of 13,486.74 points before ending at an all-time record high of 13,425.50 points, a net rise of 26.50 points or 0.20 per cent over Monday's close of 13,399.00 points.

The market, however, witnessed choppy trade in a range of 106 points due to profit booking at higher levels by local mutual funds.

Similarly, the National Stock Exchange's (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty also set a new trading peak of 3,883.00 points before ending at a new high of 3,865.90 points from previous close of 3,858.75 points.

IT and Banking stocks were the main contributor to the market's rally, brokers said.

Had it not been for the losses suffered by heavyweights like RIL, NTPC, HLL, Grasim, BHEL, Tata Steel, HDFC, SBI and Maruti Udyog, the Sensex would have crossed 13,500 level.

The market breadth, however, was sharply negative with 1,609 counters recording losses against 939 others showing gains in the total 2,613 traded shares.

Meanwhile, Asian markets witnessed a firm trend. Japan's Nikkei ended up by 267.06 points, Hong Kong's Hang Seng by 9.88 points, Taiwan's weighted index by 67.98 points, Korea's Kopsi by 10.68 points and Singapore's Straight Times by 12.64 points.

The trading volume was sharply higher at Rs 5,151.37 crore from Rs 3,943.08 crore on Monday. TCS was the top traded share with the highest turnover of Rs 943.40 crore followed by India Bulls (Rs 209.30 crore), Glenmark Pharma (Rs 116.02 crore), Hind Zinc (Rs 113.97 crore) and Infosys Tech (Rs 113.49 crore).

The broad-based BSE-100 Index moved up further by 6.87 points to 6,816.48 from previous close of 6,809.61.

The BSE-200 Index was quoted fractionally up at 1,617.15 at close from 1,615.82 while the Dollex-200 eased to 595.99 from 598.54. The BSE-500 Index was barely steady at 5,135.87 from last close of 5,136.75 and the Dollex-30 ended lower at 2,439.91 from 2,447.56.

Among sectoral indices, the BSE-IT and the Bankex shot up by 91.45 points and 70.16 points to 4,985.99 and 6,864.02 while BSE-Metal and BSE-Auto dropped by 119.64 points and 46.39 points to 8,978.43 and 5,321.02 respectively.

Infosys Tech spurted by 44.85 to 2209.75, TCS by 31.70 to 1106.25, Satyam Computer by 5.90 to 431.50, Wipro by 3.50 to 545.45, ICICI Bank by 16.90 to 857.45, HDFC Bank by 7.75 to 1062.35, ONGC by 9.10 to 880.20, L&T by 9.75 to 1346.80, Bajaj Auto by 4.25 to 2600.65 and Bharti Airtel by 4.85 to 569.95.

However, RIL dipped by 9.00 to 1277.80, Tata Steel by 6.20 to 490.95, Hindalco by 3.30 to 178.60, Maruti by 9.85 to 906.20, Tata Motors by 4.50 to 829.25, Hero Honda by 7.30 to 707.85, SBI by 10.55 to 1126.75, ACC by 12.45 to 1007, BHEL by 25.35 to 2453.45, GACL by 1.65 to 135.25, Grasim by 33.20 to 2673.60, Dr Reddy by 4.20 to 790.90, HDFC by 6.10 to 1549.35, HLL by 4.70 to 247.95 NTPC by 2.55 to 135.40, ITC by 1.45 to 14.20, Rel Com by 4.05 to 399.45.