The Hindu Business Line : All-round buying propels markets to a new high

STOCKS continued their upward journey on robust buying driving the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex as well as its counterpart on National Stock Exchange to all-time highs.

The BSE Sensex made a gain of 48.30 points to touch a new high of 6,451.30 points as foreign investors and local funds bought shares in anticipation of good corporate results.

Reliance Industries Ltd's plan to buy its shares from investors did propel some upward movement in their stocks and thereby in the indices.

S&P CNX Nifty moved up by 17.8 points to end at 2,044.65 points, also an all-time high.

Brokers said buying interest in select stocks picked up towards the latter part of the session. "Apart from foreign investors, local funds were also actively buying," said Mr Jitendra Panda, Vice-President - Retail, Motilal Oswal Securities.

"Euphoria about good corporate results especially in sectors such as steel, cement and auto also drove investors to buy stocks," he said. Among the auto stocks, Hero Honda showed an impressive gain of Rs 35.45 to finish at Rs 557.15.

Automobile sale numbers have been quite remarkable during this fiscal prompting investors to buy shares of companies in this sector, said a chief dealer at a foreign brokerage firm.

Shares of Tata Motors were also buoyant, gaining Rs 10 to end at Rs 503.35. A joint announcement by Tata Motors and Phoenix/MG Rover Group that it continues to remain committed to the City Rover in the UK fuelled renewed interest in the stock. Among the indices on BSE, Bankex moved up by 50.22 points or 1.44 per cent to 3,535.40 points. BSEPSU also moved up by 1.02 per cent to 4,316.38 points indicating that there was buying across many sectors. "The markets are expected to touch new highs though a correction cannot be ruled out in early January," said Mr Devang Shah, who overlooks institutional sales at Sushil Finance.

Today's buying interest went beyond major stocks. "Investors were also buying mid-cap stocks,'' said a broker.

Rupee strengthens: The rupee also strengthened against the US dollar to end at 43.80/81 primarily helped by sustained foreign portfolio inflows. The dollar's weakness against other major currencies also propelled the rupee's firm upward movement.

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