Mumbai: The Sensex soared to new record high of 6384.63 after opening on a firm footing during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange today (Dec 6, 2004) on sustained FII inflows coupled with a likely move to allow banks to directly invest in shares and finance IPO investments.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened strong at 6351.04 as against last Friday's close of 6322.76 and later rallied smartly to scale the new historic intra-day high at 6384.63 before being quoted at 6382.53 at 10.30 am, up 59.77 points.

Banking stocks hogged the limelight and were quoted remarkably higher on hectic buying prompted by reports that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) might change the norms to allow banks with higher capital to lend more to brokers, directly invest in shares and finance IPO investments.

UTI Bank, Federal Bank, J&K Bank, Indian Bank, ING Vysya, IDBI Bank, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank were among the top ten gainers at the early stages.

Among Index-based counters, SBI, ICICI Bank, Zee Telefilm Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Ranbaxy, Maruti Udyog, HPCL, HDFC BK, Hero Honda, HDFC, Dr Reddy's, Cipla, BHEL and ACC also were quoted sharply up on fresh buying support.

The market is driven by sustained and increased flow of funds from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) which have pumped in more than Rs 2700 crore in the first four sessions during last week.