Monday, March 7 2005 17:48 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Breaching the 6900-mark for the first time, the BSE Sensex today (March 7, 2005) hit highs of 6902.49 in a flurry of activity mainly from FIIs even as profit-taking pared gains to post yet another record closing peak of 6878.98, a gain of 29.50, as the dream-run continued.

The BSE benchmark, 30-share sensitive index after a firm start at 6863.58, shot up to an all-time intra-day high of 6902.49 around afternoon. Later, it declined to end at 6878.98, showing a rise of 0.43 pct over the previous close of 6849.48.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) who had pumped in a whopping Rs 2411 crores during the last week, continued to make big purchases, a broker said and added "domestic funds and local operators also indulged in heavy buying activity which lifted the index to dizzy heights."

If the current trend continued, the Sensex could easily breach the psychological barrier of 7000 points within a week's time, he said.

Buying spree was so strong that shares from every segment made good progress, which reflected the strong market fundamentals, another broker said.

Had there been no fall in select index-based scripts like BHEL, Bharti Tele, Grasim, HLL, HPCL, ITC, L&T, Maruti and Tata Motors, the index would have closed above the 6900-mark level, he added.

The major index heavyweights, which helped the index to shoot up, were RIL, REL, ONGC, Ranbaxy, HDFC Bank, Infosystch, Hindalco, SBI and Tisco.