Cheered by an apparent revival in foreign fund flows and the advance of the southwest monsoon, the BSE Sensex went past the 6,800 level today on strong buying support in technology and banking sector stocks.
Strong gains in Infosys, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC and ITC pushed the Sensex to its three-month high of 6858.24, up 76.99 points from Wednesday's close. The Nifty ended 14.25 points higher at 2,112.4.
The number of companies with $1 billion market capitalisation shot up to a record 70 today from 49 a year ago. The new entrants are from sectors like banks, information technology, pharmaceuticals, shipping and metals.
National Mineral Development Corporation tops the list of new entrants in the $1 billion (Rs 4,350 crore) list with a market capitalisation of Rs 11,881 crore ($2.73 billion) today compared with Rs 4,148 crore ($953 million) a year ago. Motor Industries, with a market cap of Rs 6,875 crore ($ 1.58 billion), ranked second among the new entrants.
Three sectoral indices, BSE consumer durable, BSE IT and BSE Teck hit all-time highs today. The BSE consumer durables index closed at 1,987.78, the BSE IT index at 2,792.71 and BSE Teck at 1808.41.
The consensus among brokers is that the rally is largely liquidity driven.
However, marketmen are advising caution and booking profit at every higher levels. The breadth of the market was positive with 1322 stocks advancing as against 1227 stocks declining. Among the 30 share BSE basket stocks, only 10 shares ended negative today. The volumes were moderate and accounted for Rs 2298.80 crore (Rs 22.99 billion) on BSE and Rs 4679.62 crore (Rs 46.80 billion) on the National Stock Exchange.
Mehraboon Irani, vice president, equity, Darashaw Broking, said, "Liquidity provided by institutional investors is driving up the market.
Investors are chasing stocks without knowing much about their fundamentals and that led to a sharp downfall. However, Indian markets are in a structural bull phase and the rally will continue for the next 15-18 months."
Big Bull Rakesh Jhunjhunwalla said the rally would continue as the market would continue to attract funds flow.
The BSE IT Index was the biggest gainer ending 2.1 per cent higher at 2792.71. The Infosys Technologies stocks gained 2.8 per cent to Rs 2297.85, Satyam Computer was up 2.73 per cent to Rs 472.35, TCS 1.06 per cent to Rs 1290.75, while the Wipro stock ended marginally higher at Rs 732.60, up 0.10 per cent.
Private as well as public sector bank stocks ended higher for the second consecutive day. The ICICI Bank stock was the biggest gainer in the Sensex basket, gaining 3.45 per cent to close at Rs 419.70. State Bank of India gained 0.52 per cent to Rs 689.10. However, HDFC Bank stocks ended lower at Rs 585.55, down 0.59 per cent.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Indian shares worth Rs 76.40 crore (Rs 764 million) on Monday while domestic mutual funds were net buyers to the tune of Rs 23.60 crore (Rs 236 million).
