Sensex zooms to a record high, ends up by 341.69 pts

Mumbai, Jan 4: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) sensitive index today zoomed up by 341.69 points to close at a new record high of 20,686.89, after hitting a life-time intraday high at 20,762.80 on strong buying interest.

Nifty index at National Stock Exchange (NSE) hit a record intraday high at 6,300.05, gained over 120 points from its previous close of 6,178, before finally closing at a gain of 95.75 points at 6,274.30. The market eased from higher level in late trade on profit booking, after a sharp intra-day surge. The market breadth, which was strong for most of the trading session, turned negative in late trade. Turnover on BSE was about Rs 11,000 crore. Asian markets were mostly in green and European markets were mixed.

The BSE Mid-Cap index ended up 0.56 pc to 10,220, while BSE Small-Cap ended marginally down at 13,884.11, after hitting all-time intraday high. The BSE Mid-Cap index hit all-time high of 10,220.43 and the BSE Small-Cap index struck record high of 14,124.80 today.

However, both these indices underperformed the Sensex. The market breadth was negative on BSE with 1470 shares declining as compared to 1437 that advanced and 17 remained unchanged.

Among the Sensex pack, 16 scrips slipped, while the rest of them advanced.

Most of the sectoral indices ended in positve gain, Consumer goods Oil&Gas and Bankex were the top gainers, ending 2.56, 2.31 and 2.01 per cent up respectively. Metal ended up 1.86 pc and FMCG gained 1.50 pc.

Frontliner stock ICICI Bank vaulted 4.15 pc to Rs 1279. It was the top gainer from the Sensex pack. However, State Bank of India declined 0.42pc to Rs 2386 and HDFC Bank was down marginally at Rs 1696.

Reliance Communications surged 3.65pc to Rs 760.20. 20.53 lakh shares were traded on the counter on BSE. Larsen&Toubro surged 3.90pc to Rs 4220. Oil&Natural Gas Corporation was up 2.61 pc and Cairn India was up 2.26 pc, gained as crude oil hovered near a record high of $100 per barrel.

Tata Steel rose 0.25 pc Rs 929 after the company signed a joint venture agreement with the Steel Authority of India for incorporation of a joint venture company, for coal mining activities in Jharkhand.

Reliance Industries (RIL) advanced 2.62 pc to Rs 2979 off session's high of Rs 3018. 9.09 lakh shares were traded on the counter on BSE. As per reports, RIL has emerged as the highest bidder for the Motipur sugar unit of Bihar State Sugar Corporation at a price of Rs 57 crore, marginally higher than the floor price of Rs 55.36 crore.

National Thermal Power Corporation lost 2.24pc to Rs 270.50 on high volumes of 39.94 lakh shares. Auto stocks slipped on profit booking. Mahindra&Mahindra was down 1.40pc to Rs 824, Tata Motors was down 1.32pc to Rs 783.80 and Maruti Suzuki India was down 1.13pc to Rs 964.

IT pivotals stayed subdued in a firm market. Infosys declined 1.05 pc, TCS was down 0.88 pc, Satyam Computers came down 0.57 pc to and Wipro was down by 0.33 pc.

UNI