Thursday, September 29 2005 17:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Reaching yet another milestone, the Sensex today (Sept 29, 2005) surged past the 8700 mark to historic peaks in sustained volatility as the bullish fervor gained further momentum, propelling the Sensex to a new record closing highs of 8650.17.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) once again hit an intra day high of 8722.17, mainly driven by hectic short covering in key heavy weighted counters like Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Infosys Tech, Larsen and Turbo (L&T), State of India (SBI) and Satyam Computer.

The Sensex witnessed choppy trade in a range of 8722.17 and 8588.47 due to squaring up activity on the last sessions in derivatives contract before ending the day at 8650.17 from yesterday's close of 8606.03, a net rise of 44.14 points or 0.51 per cent.

Small cap stocks, however, were at the receiving end and the gravity of pressure in the segment could be gauged by a fall of 111 points its index.

Hedge funds and operators covered their short positions in some index heavyweights but late profit booking pared gains towards close, brokers said.

Strong liquidity and robust fundamentals visualize an extended price rally, an inevitable technical correction for the good health of the market, brokers added.

The market is considered to be fully priced but some key stocks provide good investment opportunities with strong hopes of excellent second quarter working results to be announced after October 10.

The BSE Small-Cap Index dropped by 111.05 points or 1.88 per cent to 5806.31 from last close of 5917.36.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index firmed up further by 11.46 points to 4566.99 from previous close of 4555.53.

The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were quoted modestly up at 1098.23 and 415.65 at close compared to previous close of 1096.32 and 414.08 respectively. The BSE-500 Index edged up by 1.64 points to 3525.83 from yesterday's close of 3524.19 and the Dollex-30 ended higher at 1614.71 from 1602.89.

The total volume of business was substantially up at Rs 4258.20 crore from Rs 3706.65 crore yesterday. FCS Software remained the most active scrip with the highest turnover of Rs 317.17 crore followed by RIL (Rs 230.48 crore), McDowell (Rs 184.87 crore) REL Capital (Rs 153.05 crore) and Satyam Computer (Rs 148.94 crore).

RIL strengthened by 7.90 to 808.20, Infosys Tech by 57.80 to 2527.60, Satyam Computer by 9.60 to 551.55, SBI by 4.05 to 940.20, L&T by 70.65 to 1544.05, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) by 62.30 to 1222.65, Dr Reddy's Lab by 26.45 to 838.10, ONGC by 2.70 to 1073, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd by 2.25 to 1471.60, Tata Steel by a rupee to 418.60, Tata Power by 3.40 to 467.15, Hero Honda by 17.60 to 743.70, GACL by 2.10 to 76.05, Cipla by 18 to 380.80, Bharti Tele-Venture by 1.90 to 346.15 and ACC by 8.35 to 486.15.

However, Grasim dropped by 22.10 to 1320.75, HDFC Bank by 3.75 to 692, HDFC by 19 to 1019.30, Hindalco by 1.80 to 147.65 ICICI Bank by 3.65 to 595.40, ITC by 2.70 to 138.20, Tata Motor by 1.05 to 535.85, Ranbaxy by 12.90 to 496.05 and NTPC by 1.60 to 107.25.