Thursday, September 1 2005 17:53 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Buoyed by a strong global trend, the stock market today (Sept 1, 2005) rallied sharply aiding the Sensex to end at a new peak of 7876.15 on the back of heavy purchases by operators as well as institutional investors.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) opened firm at 7818.90 and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high of 7902.19 before ending the day at an all-time high of 7876.15 against yesterday's close of 7805.43, a net gain of 70.72 points or 0.91 per cent.

A smart rally in world markets helped stocks continued upsurge for the third day in a row. The Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday (Aug 31, 2005) ended up by 68.78 points and the Nasdaq Composite Index by 22.33 points.

The sentiment was bolstered by a largest outsourcing deal signed by ABN Amro bank with five IT vendors as also a robust growth in sales of two-wheelers and cars in August.

IT counters witnessed a smart rally in response to a 1.8 billion Euro contact signed by the bank with five IT-vendors including TCS Ltd and Infosys Technologies while Auto shares attracted heavy buying prompted by increase sales of vehicles.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and private mutual funds reportedly were heavy buyers during the session. FIIs reported net investments of Rs 258.10 crore in equities on August 30 while domestic mutual funds were net buyers to the tune of Rs 197.16 crore on the same day.

In the Asian markets, the Nikkei closed up by 93.37 points, the Hang Seng by 240.20 points and Singapore ST Index by 20.11 points today.

However, Dr Reddy's Lab, HDFC Bank, ITC, ONGC and Satyam Computers reacted negatively due to profit booking.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index firmed up by another 33.35 points to 4218.18 from previous close of 4184.83.

The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were quoted sharply up at 1020.29 and 385.01 at close compared to previous close of 1012.28 and 382.69 respectively. The BSE-500 Index shot up by 25.52 points to 3298.52 from yesterday's close of 3273.00 and the Dollex-30 ended higher at 1465.62 from 1455.10.

The volume of business was relatively high at Rs 4194.09 crore compared to Rs 3963.09 crore yesterday. Colgate clocked the highest turnover of Rs 386.26 crore followed by HT Media, which was listed today (Rs 330.82 crore), Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) (Rs 126.91 crore), IFSL (Rs 93.12 crore) and Zee Tele (Rs 82.14 crore).

In specified group, 121 including 23 index-based scrips registered sharp to moderate gains while 77 others finished with losses.

RIL advanced by 7.20 to 726.75, Infosys Tech by 50.50 to 2426.75, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd by 13.40 to 1419.25, Wipro by 6.80 to 371.45, Bajaj Auto by 42.25 to 1455.85, Hero Honda by 17.65 to 664.35, Maruti by 14 to 485, Tata Motors by 6.85 to 469.70, HDFC by 13.05 to 917.90, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) by 5.45 to 1074.15, Cipla by 2.40 to 344.20, Grasim by 1.60 to 1301.65, Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) by 2.50 to 168.15, ICICI Bank by 1.95 to 483.65, Larsen and Turbo (L&T) by 7.90 to 1340.85, NTPC by 1.85 to 103.90, Ranbaxy by 18.95 to 544.25, Reliance Energies Limited (REL) by 3.80 to 573.75, State Bank of India (SBI) by 3.05 to 799.70, Tata Power by 5.10 to 455.75 and Tata Steel by 2.80 to 393.45.

However, Dr Reddy declined by 24.40 to 775.45, HDFC Bank by 8.10 to 632.05, ITC by 2.85 to 1728.95, ONGC by 5.75 to 975.65 and Satyam Computer by 2.00 to 528.05.