Sensex hits all-time high over 21K level

Mumbai, Jan 8: After hitting the psychological level of 21K for the first time ever, the sensitive index of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ended today with a positive gap of 60.68 points at a fresh record high at 20873.33 amid choppy trade.

The benchmark Sensex resumed the day on positive note at 20970.07, gaining 167.42 points from its previous close of 20,812.65, and soon after, hit a record high at 21077.53 on sustained buying in the early trading session.But, later, it failed to sustain the gains on subsequent heavy selling pressure and dipped to a day's low of 20696.60, shedding 381 points from its intra-day high in the mid-morning. Meanwhile, Nifty index at National Stock Exchange (NSE) surged to hit a fresh all-time high at 6357.10, gained 88 points from its previous close of 6279.10 in the early trade. Later, Nifty ended with a marginal gain of 8.75 points at 6287.85.

Both the benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty failed to sustain the early high gains on selling pressure and swung between positive and negative on bouts of alternative buying and selling of stocks before finally settling with a positive gap, traders said.

The market breadth was quite weak. Healthcare, metal, consumer durables and auto stocks declined. IT stocks ended with gains. Reliance Industries was in green.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices ended with a negative gap of 2.82 per cent and 3.28 per cent respectively. While, BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 11,823 crore compared to Rs 10,728 crore on previous day. US markets ended in red yesterday, while Asian and European markets showed a mixed trend today.

Most of the BSE sectoral indices ended in red. Metal stocks ended with the largest loss of 3 per cent, followed by consumer durables which ended 2.93 per cent down. Auto stocks were down 1.26 per cent and realty stocks shed about one per cent. However, today, IT stocks were in the green and ended with a gain of 1.18 per cent.

The market breadth was weak on BSE with 539 shares advancing as compared to 2,404 that declined, while 16 ended in red and 23 stocks remained unchanged from the Sensex pack.

Frontline stocks, Reliance Industries, was up 1.05 per cent at Rs 3047.25 and session's high of Rs 3083, Reliance Natural Resources rose 7.15 per cent to Rs 244.15 on huge volume of 4.23 crore shares on BSE. ICICI Bank fell 1.71 per cent to Rs 1340.05. Bharti Airtel was up 4.01 per cent, HDFC Bank gained 3.58 per cent, while State Bank of India was up 2.59 per cent.

Consumer durables, Videocon Industries was down 4.13 per cent, Titan Industries fell 3.99 per cent, and Blue Star was down 1.43 per cent.

Gitanjali Gems declined 2.45 per cent. The company today announced that it had bought ''Nakshatra'', the premium brand of jewellery promoted by Diamond Trading Company (DTC), for approximately Rs 100 crore through its Dubai-based subsidiary, Gitanjali Ventures.

Metal stocks, Tata Steel was down 4.19 per cent, Sterlite Industries came down 2.45 per cent, Steel Authority of India was down 2.79 per cent, Hindalco Industries was down 3.75 per cent, and National Aluminium Company was down 5.79 per cent.

IT stocks gained today. Infosys rose 1.64 per cent, Wipro was up 1.17 per cent, and Tata Consultancy Services was up 1.62 per cent.

Satyam Computer Services was the star gainer with a gain of 3.28 per cent.

UNI