Monday, February 14 2005 17:34 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex today (Feb 14, 2005) soared past the 6700-mark and hit historic-peaks of 6719.20 during early deals at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), buoyed by hectic FII buying even as heavy profit-taking wiped out a major part of the gains, still projecting a fresh all-time closing high of of 6679.33 with a whopping 45.57 points rise.

The benchmark had last ended at a then record high of 6679.20 on January 3 and had posted an intraday peak of 6696.31 on the following day.

Resumption of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) into the bourses have buoyed market sentiments, fuelling buying support from local retail operators and domestic funds, a dealer from a large brokerage house said.

FIIs have pumped in a massive Rs 880 crore during the last week ended February 11, according to SEBI.

The Benchmark, 30-share sensetive index opened firm at 6673.39 and rallied to an all-time intra-day high of 6719.20. However, it fell to a low of 6659.64, before closing at 6679.33, showing a gain of 45.57 points or 0.69 per cent over the previous close of 6633.76.

Software shares hogged the limelight with IT major, Infosys Tech shooting up by Rs 65.65 to end at Rs 268.85. Other firm spots in this sector were Wipro which rallied by Rs 15.80 to Rs 711.25 and Satyam Com by Rs 11.10 to Rs 421.45 on heactic buying.

In banking sector, SBI, ICICI Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of India, Corporation Bank, Karnataka Bank and Syndicate Bank also showed handsome gains.