Saturday, July 9 2005 14:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex scaled historic peaks before ending the week with minor gains of 0.02 per cent even as the bourses across the world were shaken by a series of bomb blasts in London on Thursday, leading to panic among investors of terrorism once again hitting the global economy.

The markets, however, suddenly overcame the nervousness following sustained net investments from Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which had been heavy sellers in the Futures on July 7, 2005 (Thursday) when the Sensex had plunged by over 142 points.

In the week up to July 9 (Saturday) the benchmark touched the all-time intra-trade peak of 7308.72 on July 5 and a new closing record highs of 7287.60 on July 6 (Wednesday), before ending the week at 7212.08 as against last weekend's close of 7210.77, a net rise of 1.31 points.

The strong turnaround after multiple London explosions was credited to a smart rally in US and European markets as well as sustained FII inflows in the cash segment.

According to figures released by the Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), FIIs have pumped in about Rs 1370 crore in the Indian equity in the first four trading days of the week.

Hedge funds, however, were believed to have pulled out more than Rs 1,000 crore in the Futures over London development. Meanwhile, global oil prices remained well above the US $61 a barrel level at the weekend.

The market has been driven by sustained FII inflows and is considered to be very bullish despite cautious approach by local players that have reduced their participation.

Heavyweight counters like Tata Steel, Hindalco, State Bank of India (SBI), Indian Tobacco Company (ITC), Larsen and Turbo (L&T), HDFC Bank, Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) and ACC recorded remarkable gains on heavy buying support.