Monday, July 4 2005 17:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Driven by sustained FII inflows, the Sensex today (July 4, 2005) extended its four-session rising trend and after scaling a new historic high of 7284.41, ended at a fresh all-time closing highs of 7277.31 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) even as operators adopted a cautious approach.

The Sensex has gained 228.31 points in the four-day winning string, setting the lifetime record peaks.

After a weak start at 7186.74, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index turned strong and rallied smartly to new historic intra-trade high of 7284.41.

Later, it softened due to profit-selling a higher level and after falling to 7186.74, ended the day at 7277.31 as against last Friday's close of 7210.77, a net rise of 66.54 points or 0.92 per cent.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reportedly were heavy buyers in select heavy weighted counters during the day.

The sentiment was boosted by a sharp fall in inflation number which dipped to a two-year low of 4.10 per cent for the week ended June 18 coupled with expectations of increased inflows, brokers said adding that over 100 new FIIs have registered with the SEBI in the past six months.

However, local operators and investors were adopting cautious approach in the rising market expecting a correction at any time, a market analyst said.

The major gainers were Infosys Tech, Hindalco, Dr Reddy, RIL, HDFC Bank, ITC, Tata Power, CIPLA, HDFC, ACC, SBI, Grasim, ICICI Bank, ONGC, REL, Satyam, TCS, Bharti and NTPC.