Monday, December 27 2004 17:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Though today's (Dec 27, 2004) crucial RIL board meeting failed to make any positive impact on the company's shares, the overall sentiment remained bullish on the stock market and the Sensex closed past 6500-mark at a new historic high of 6513.03, up by 14.97 points on good buying by foreign funds, completing three-session gaining streak.

Under the leadership of steel major Tata Steel, most of the metal shares were at the forefront followed by cement banking and healthcare stocks, helping the Sensex to close in positive terrain, dealers said.

Top heavyweight and petro-chem giant Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), after volatile movements on alternate bouts of buying and selling, finished lower than yesterday's close. The ongoing tussle between Ambani brothers, Anil and Mukesh since mid-November, took a new turn this morning when the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Anil Ambani slammed the move of buyback for which the meeting was being held.

As a result, share prices dipped to a low of 505 before bouncing back to a high of 544.80 when the news that the RIL board has approved the buyback of its shares at a price not exceeding Rs 570.00 per share.

But profit-booking at higher levels once again pulled down prices to settle at 516.85 as against last Friday's close of 523.60.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened slightly lower at 6484.84 as against last Friday's close of 6498.06 and after fluctuating in a range between all-time intra-day high of 6566.64 and a low of 6469.96, ended at 6513.03, up by 0.23 per cent.

Meanwhile, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) would examine the legal aspects of alleged insider and unfair trading practices in Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL) scrip in the wake of RIL Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Anil Ambani's comments before the company's board meeting.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index advanced further by 10.19 points to 3533.68 from the last weekend's level of 3523.49.