Sensex at new high of 10,244 pts with the 4th consecutive gain

Mumbai, Feb 23 (UNI) Even after a quantum jump to cross the 10,300 mark in the morning trade, the BSE Sensex closed at 10,244 with just a gain of 19 points over yesterday's close.

Continuing with the bull run for the fourth consective day, the BSE benchmark index touched the historic 10,304 mark.

The total gains during the week has been 262 points.

The 30-share Sensex opened 44 points up at 10,268 and touched a new high of 10,304.88 today.

However, banks, consumer durables, capital goods and health care sectors were the losers.

The counters trading with good gains were FMCG, metals and PSUs.

Index heavy weight Hindustan Lever (HLL) traded at a lifetime high of Rs 252 per share to finally with a gain of 3.10 per cent at Rs 248.40.

Bajaj Auto was on fire too trading at a new high of Rs 2,693 and closed with a ain of 3.10 per cent or Rs 78.95 at Rs 2,622 per share.

NTPC was another scrip on high touching Rs 134.70, but closed lower with a gain of 1.58 per cent at Rs 131.50.

Small and midcap companies index of the BSE ended with a loss of 0.54 per cent and 0.18 per cent respectively.

Top Sensex gainers were Bajaj Auto, Hindustan Lever, Tata Steel, ONGC, ITC, NTPC, Satyam Computers, Hero Honda, Wipro and Reliance Energy.

The blue chips trailing on the Sensex were Ranbaxy Lab, Grasim Industries, Hindalco, SBI, Gujarat Ambuja, ICICI Bank, BHEL, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, Maruti.

The National Stock Exchange's (NSE) broader Nifty index closed 11.30 points up at 3,062.10.

Inox Leisure Ltd made an impressive debut on the stock markets today with more than 50 per cent premium.

The Inox scrip closed at Rs 179.90 with a gain of 50 per cent (49.92 pc) or Rs 59.90 on the NSE.

Inox, which runs a chain of multiplexes, earlier opened at Rs 172 and touched a high of Rs 194.80 during the day's trade and a low of Rs 167.05 before closing at Rs 179.90.

The volume was big on NSE, with 20.68 million shares worth Rs 486.70 crore being traded.

On the BSE, Inox opened at Rs 185 against the fixed issue price of Rs 120 per share of Rs 10 value.

The scrip touched a high of Rs 200 and a low of Rs 168.05 during the intra-day trading and closed finally at Rs 174.75.

On BSE, more than 16.05 million company shares changed hands.

The crude oil prices were unchanged at 61.10 per barrel in the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) which may not bother markets much.

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