Sensex opens all time high at 20,103.44 pts

Mumbai, Oct 30: The BSE index today resumed an all time high at 20,103.44 points gaining 125 points from its last close of 19,977.67 points on sustained heavy speculative demand from FIIs and mutual fund operators.

Brokers said that ''Market opened on a positive note to hit fresh all-time high above 20,000. It soon plunged into the red ahead of Reserve Bank of India' s annual monetary policy review due at 12 this noon. Capital goods stocks extended gains. Bharat Heavy Electricals, Larsen&Toubro, HDFC hit all time highs in early trade. Reliance Industries declined. Market breadth was negative. Most of the Asian markets were trading lower.'' Later, the current BSE Sensex is down by 24 points or 0.12 per cent(pc) to 19,953.16. It opened on a strong note with an upward gap of 125.77 points at 20,103.44 and soon rose to strike an all-time high of 20,238.16 in early trade.

The current broader based S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE is also down 28.7 points, or 0.49 per cent, to 5,877.20. It opened high at 5917.55 points, later it recorded all time high at 5971.70 points in intra day trade.

Market men expect RBI to keep interest rates steady at its policy review today. Though headline inflation remains low, inflationary expectations have not reduced due to prices of some primary articles spurting recently and retail fuel prices held down artificially by the government due to administered prices even as crude prices have been rising. The central bank may resort to hike in bank's cash reserve ratio to suck out excess liquidity from the banking systems.

The BSE Mid Cap index was down by 0.14 pc to 8,071.31. BSE Small Cap index was up 0.06 pc to Rs 9,711.36.

India's largest private sector entity by market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) declined by 1.9 pc to Rs 2,773.80.

Capital goods stocks extended gains today. Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) rose by 4.71 pc to Rs 2,735 and was the top gainer from Sensex pack. It hit an all time high of Rs 2,750 today.

Net profit of Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) hiked by 91.01 pc to Rs 687.66 crore on 18.68 pc rise in total income to Rs 3965.36 crore in Q2 September 2007 over Q2 September 2006.The company announced the results after the market hours on October 29 2007.

Larsen&Toubro gained by 2.82 pc to Rs 4,398. It hit an all time high of Rs 4,470 today. Suzlon Energy however declined 0.2 pc to Rs 1,993.90. Reliance Energy was up by 3.2 pc to Rs 1,777,followed by HDFC Bank by 1.9 pc to Rs 1,669.90 and Bajaj Auto by 1.44 pc to Rs 2,538 edged higher.

Mahindra&Mahindra was down by 3.94 pc to Rs 765, similarly, Maruti Suzuki India by 1.97 pc to Rs 1,165, Hindustan Unilever by 1.57 pc to Rs 216.30, Wipro by 1.22 pc to Rs 503.45 edged lower.

Housing Development Finance Corporation rose by 0.25 pc to Rs 2,820.It hit an all time high of Rs 2,965 today. Net profit of Housing Development Finance Corporation rose 75.64 pc to Rs 646.39 crore on 30.54 pc rise in total income to Rs 1888.60 crore in Q2 September 2007 over Q2 September 2006.

Asian markets were trading slightly lower today, as Japan's Nikkei was down by 1.11 pc at 16,512, followed by Taiwan Weighted by 0.52 pc at 9,758.84, Singapore's Straits Times by 0.71 pc at 3,792, South Korea's Seoul Composite by 0.81 pc at 2,045 edged lower.

However, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.14% at 31,632.

US Markets advanced yesterday, as The Dow Jones industrial average gained by 64 points to 13870.26, the S&P 500 index rose by 6 points to 1540.98 and the Nasdaq Composite index firmed by 13 points to 2817, brokers added.

UNI