Tuesday, October 4 2005 17:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The unprecedented stocks dream run today (Oct 4, 2005) gathered further momentum, breached the 8800 level and surged to new peaks, spurred by robust economic fundamentals amid sustained Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) inflows with hardly any negative sentiments to abort the rally.

After a plunge to 8186.13 on September 22, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) kept up the bullish tempo and spurted by a whopping 623 points or 8.00 per cent in seven days to hit intra-trade high of 8808.83 mainly driven by a surfeit of liquidity.

The Sensex also ended the day at a new closing peak of 8799.96 as against yesterday's close of 8697.65, a net gain of 102.31 points or 1.18 per cent.

Taking a cue from a strong 8.1 per cent GDP growth, FII together with domestic funds made hectic purchases across-the-board with the mid-cap and small-cap stocks hogging the limelight, brokers said.

A fair amount of speculative play also drove the market to dizzy heights, they added.

Investors also expected the encouraging second quarter corporate earnings to further boost the economic growth.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CIIs) already was optimistic that strong prospects of kharif production and encouraging performance by industrial and services sector may help economy register 7.3 per cent growth in 2005-06.

Now, since the benchmark has crossed the crucial level, it is likely to test 10,000 mark before Dassera, if the current trend persists, brokers said.

The BSE Small-Cap Index spurted by 87.61 points or 1.50 per cent to 5912.20 from last close of 5824.59 and the Mid-cap index firmed up by 45.72 points or 1.07 per cent to 4302.99 from yesterday's close of 4257.27.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index flared up by another 56.65 points to 4666.82 from previous close of 4610.17.

The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were quoted sharply up at 1122.07 and 423.32 at close compared to previous close of 1108.83 and 418.71 respectively. The BSE-500 Index shot up by 41.94 points to 3600.41 from yesterday's (Oct 3, 2005) close of 3558.47 and the Dollex-30 ended higher at 1637.16 from 1619.59.

The total volume of business rose sharply to Rs 3838.69 crore from Rs 3050.90 crore yesterday. Bharti Tel clocked the highest turnover of Rs 157.51 crore followed by RIL (Rs 152.68 crore), Satyam Computer (Rs 148.02 crore), HLL (Rs 144.54 crore) and FCS Software (Rs 110.57 crore).

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) firmed up by 11.80 to 806.00, State Bank of India (SBI) by 12.35 to 957.40, Infosys Tech by 75.70 to 2629.40, HDFC Bank by 31.65 to 709.95 Bajaj Auto by 41.95 to 1810.05, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) by 33.65 to 1278.40, Dr Reddy's Lab by 28.55 to 911.30, Grasim by 11.35 to 1340.15, Hindalco by 1.15 to 152.70, Maruti Udyog by 11.10 to 589.45, ONGC by 9.60 to 1079.45, Satyam Computer by 14.45 to 589.30, Tata Motor by 15.95 to 568.20, Wipro by 19.65 to 400.35, Tata Steel by 7.10 to 433.15, Larsen and Turbo (L&T) by 14.65 to 1537.35, Hero Honda by 14.10 to 762.75, HDFC by 5.10 to 1023.35, ACC by 3.25 to 494.45 and Bharti Tele-venture by 1.80 to 348.40.

However, ICICI Bank dipped by 3.85 to 589.45, REL by 1.15 to 583.85, TCS Ltd by 7.85 to 1489.20, HLL by 1.30 to 183.55, Tata Power by 2.20 to 479.20, GACL by 2.30 to 76.25 and Cipla by 10.20 to 380.35.