BSE Sensex inches closer to 11,000 at 10,941 pts

Mumbai, Mar 20 (UNI) The BSE Sensex inched nearer to 11,000 mark today closing at an all-time high of 10,941, with a gain of 81 points over Friday's close of 10,860.

With the Japanese market index Nikkei closing with a gain of 1.74 per cent and US markets (NYSE, Nasdaq and Dow Jones), too closing in the green, the markets were in an upward momentum for the major part of the day's trading, going as high as 10,946 points.

Sensex earlier opened with a gain of 43 points at 10,903, as against the last close of 10,860 points.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty also touched a lifetime high of 3,268 points and finally closed with a gain of 0.98 per cent or 31.60 points at 3,265.65.

Maximum gains were seen in the BSE sectoral indices of information technology (2.68 per cent), technology (2.37 per cent) and metal (2.31 per cent).

Wipro (4.53 per cent), Infosys (3.04 per cent), TCS (2.64 per cent) and Satyam Computer (1.20 per cent) were the major gainers on the Sensex in the IT sector, where the first three topped the Sensex gainers list also.

Aditya Birla group company Grasim Industries (2.47 per cent) and Hindalco (1.73 per cent) also gained on the back of the news of new plantation project being set up by the group companies in Laos.

The other top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla, Hero Honda, Dr Reddy's Lab and ITC.

Other sectoral indices closed with less than one per cent gain.

However, automobile, banks and capital goods were under pressure, as they closed in the red.

However, BSE midcap index out-performed the market with a gain of 0.86 per cent, as compared to 0.75 per cent gain in the Sensex.

BSE smallcap index also closed in the green, gaining by 0.27 per cent.

The losers on Sensex were - Bajaj Auto, Bharti Tele, Hindustan Lever, Ranbaxy, Tata Power, Reliance Energy, HDFC, Larsen&Toubro, ONGC and HDFC Bank.

More UNI RRP GK SKB1652