The Hindu Business Line : Bull run continues

THE euphoria after the stock markets crossed a key milestone - the magical, five-figure index level of 10,000 points for the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex - is yet to die down. But, from Tuesday's trade it seemed as though the markets have already put that much awaited development behind it and moved forward.

The benchmark indices at both the BSE and the NSE had crossed their respective previous highs on Monday, including the 10,000-mark, but considerable nervousness at those levels was evident and the lower closing amply illustrated the hesitancy amongst investors. After the partial profit booking towards the close of the previous day's session, the bulls were out in strength on Tuesday, pushing the indices up to new levels.

Click here for table

So, the stratospheric rise of the indices continued on Tuesday with the BSE Sensex increasing more than one per cent and the NSE recorded a more modest 0.65 per cent rise. Active trading and above average volumes were witnessed in a number of the index heavyweights. Industry segments that witnessed buying support were sugar, auto, banking, FMCG, pharmaceuticals and engineering.

At the BSE, some of the other sectoral indices closed higher on Tuesday after sector-specific stocks in banking, auto and FMCG segments climbed to higher levels on the back of heavy buying support.

The BSE Sensex closed the day with a gain of 101 points at 10,082 points, the first time that the index has closed over the five-figure mark. Intra-day, the 30-share index had recorded a high of 10,099 points and a low of 9,972 points.

There were a total of 21 stocks of the Sensex 30 that posted gains on Tuesday, including many of the usual investor favourites. Traded value of Sensex stocks was about Rs 1,016 crore.

Amongst the big gainers from the Sensex 30 were Tata Motors (up 3.74 per cent), HDFC Bank (up 3.69 per cent), ICICI Bank (up 3.43 per cent), Cipla (up 3.13 per cent) and Maruti Udyog (up 2.57 per cent).

Other gainers included Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Gujarat Ambuja Cements, ITC, SBI and Wipro. HDFC, ONGC, Ranbaxy, Reliance Energy and Satyam Computer closed lower on profit booking.

One sector that has been in the focus amongst institutional investors during the last two trading sessions is he plantations business. Stocks that have been in the limelight from this sector were Dhunseri Tea, Goodricke, Duncans Industries (NSE), Harrisons Malayam and Tata Tea.

The only stock that seemed to have seen a reversal of trend in this sector was Tata Coffee, which was down marginally on Tuesday.