Mumbai: The market hit the lifetime closing peaks of 6420.38 before ending the week below 6400 levels at 6346.48, up 1.81 per cent, driven by unabated FII (Foreign Institutional Investor) inflows into the booming bourses.

The S&P CNX Nifty too crossed 2000-mark and touched the historic closing high of 2033.20 on December 16.

For the first time in the BSE history, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index cruised past 6400-mark to scale the intra-trade all-time high of 6437.00 and even to record the closing peak of of 6420.38 on December 16.

The sensex, however, fell back below 6400-level due to strong resistance at the weekend and concluded the week under review at 6346.48 as against last weekend's close of 6233.54, a net rise of 112.94 points.

The continued pouring of funds by FIIs into Indian bourses was the only factor behind market euphoria. FIIs reported net investments of Rs 1135 crore in the first four sessions of the week.

FIIs who seem to consider Asia's fourth-largest economy as their best for 2004, have pumped in over $ 8.07 billion (Rs 36,979.70 crore) in the current year till December 15, the highest ever investments in any calendar year, as per figures released by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

FII inflows increased during December contrary to the general feeling that FIIs would slow down activity ahead of the long Christmas holidays and the year-end.

The capital market remained strong on the base of bright overall economic outlook and strong corporate fundamentals.

The sentiment was also boosted by projections in the Mid-Year Review released on Monday (Dec 13, 2004) that even at a relatively lower GDP growth of six per cent plus, India would continue to be one of the fastest growing economies.

The BSE IT closed the week at 2612.90, the BSE CG at 2846.89, the BSE HC at 2960.68, the BSE PSU at 4242.69, the BSE Teck at 1713.05, the BSE Auto at 2708.16 and the BSE Metal at 5526.15, registering hefty gains at the weekend.

Among other indices, the broad-based BSE-100 Index shot up by 73.93 points to end the week at 3435.82 from previous weekend's close of 3361.89.

The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were quoted sharply higher at 849.44 and 321.20 at the weekend compared to last weekend's close of 827.08 and 308.68 respectively.

The BSE-500 Index flared up by 70.09 points to finish the week at 2656.29 from preceding weekend's close of 2586.20 and the Dollex-30 ended the week sharply up at 1183.39 from 1147.22 at the last weekend.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), The S&P CNX Nifty and the S&P CNX Defty soared by 43.10 points and 44.20 points to close the week at 2012.10 and 1587.75 from last weekend's close 1969.00 and 1543.55 respectively. The CNX Nifty Junior spurted by 148.85 points to end the week at 4165.05 from last weekend's close of 4015.20.

During the week, the volume of business on the BSE and the NSE was Rs 10,598 crore and Rs 23,519 crore respectively.