The Hindu Business Line : Markets give thumbs up; Sensex zooms

THE bourses gave a six-gun salute to the Budget with the Sensex touching all-time high levels. Though both Sensex and Nifty were range bound during the Budget speech, they zoomed upwards soon after the conclusion of the speech with the markets not finding any cause of concern in the Budget announcements.

Sensex touched an intra-day high of 6,721.08, before consolidating a little to close at 6,713.86, its highest close ever. Overall, the 30-stock index gained 144.14 points today, an appreciation of 2.19 per cent.

Nifty posted gains of 42.35 points today. The benchmark index touched an intra-day high of 2,106.20 and closed trade on Budget day at 2,103.25.

The top movers in the markets included Tata Steel, SBI, HDFC, Ceat, Dhampur Sugar, Praj Industries, Unitech, Jaiprakash Associates, Wipro and ABB.

With various measures announced to increase agricultural credit, bank stocks had a field day. Bankex, BSE's banking stocks index, touched a record high level of 3,931.57, before shedding a little to close at 3,916.46, indicating net gain of 3.94 per cent since Friday.

Several measures announced by the Finance Minister are expected to help improve the depth and liquidity of the markets.

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