Wednesday, July 20 2005 11:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The sensex today (July 20, 2005) hit yet another all-time peak at 7392.67 during the morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) even as investors focused their attention to mid-cap and small-cap shares.

The Benchmark surpassed its overnight intra-trade record high of 7385.69 and scaled a new historic peak of 7392.67 before being quoted at 7387.03 at 10.30 a.m., a gain of 40.40 points over yesterday's (July 19, 2005) close of 7346.63. The sensex opened firm at 7373.94.

The BSE barometer has been on a record setting spree since Monday (July 18, 2005) and has touched new peaks during the last two trading sessions.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), who have been consistent buyers on the bourses for the last couple of months, reportedly were buyers in select heavy weighted stocks.

FIIs and bulls, however, seemed to be more active in the mid-cap and small-cap sections in the past two days.

FIIs reported net investments of Rs 368.40 crore on Monday (July 18, 2005) after pumping in Rs 1473.70 crore during last week.

Brokers said the market is still bullish and the sensex might continue its upward march on the back of sustained FII inflows, which are encouraging compared to last year.

Key counters like Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Wipro, Tata Steel, State Bank of India (SBI), Satyam Computers, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Maruti Udyog, L&T, ICICI Bank, ITC, HDFC Bank, Grasim and a few others were quoted moderately up on fresh buying support.

However, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Hero Honda and Infosys Tech showed marked falls due to selling pressure.