The Hindu Business Line : Sensex near record high

The market opened smartly and though the first hour of trading was slightly sluggish, it picked up pace during the course of the day with foreign institutional investors providing strong buying support.

The Sensex registered a 2.03 per cent appreciation to close the day at 6157.77.

This is the second highest closing in the history of BSE. The highest level was at 6194.11 on January 14, 2004.

At NSE, the Nifty gained 38.6 points to close at 1939.06.

Brokers say they were "pleasantly surprised" by the movement of the market today. Sectors such as auto, textiles and technology had a field day at the bourses.

With the credit off-take of corporates increasing and the increased income because of higher interest rates, banking sector is also on a bullish mode.

Bankex, BSE's index of banking stocks, posted the highest returns, ending the day with an appreciation of 3.04 per cent.

Brokers attribute the buying frenzy of FIIs to year-end covering of positions.

Trading on Monday was led by smart buying in large cap stocks, indicating FII activity.

Brokers believe that FIIs would remain active for the next two weeks of trade and the index can be expected to be volatile.

"We would expect the market to now test the 6250-level, sooner than later. It did move more than what was expected today," said Mr Ramesh Damani.

Market participants also attribute some short covering before the end of the calendar year.

Volumes were also fairly encouraging today. BSE registered trading of 26.25 crore shares at a value of Rs 2,285 crore.

At NSE, 35.09 crore share, worth Rs 5,135 crore exchanged hands.

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