Sensex closes at new all time high of 11,895

Mumbai, Apr 19: The 30-share Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) went quite close to the 12,000 mark at 11,986.09 in the intra-day trading, however it closed 74 point up at new all time high of 11,896.

Earlier, the benchmark index of the BSE opened with a gain of 58 points at 11,880.05, as compared to the last close of 11,821.57.

Fired-up by fourth quarter (Q4) results, the BSE Sensex continued its bull run while touching a high of 11,986.09, which was an all-time high and just 14 points away from 12,000 mark.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty index closed 17 points up at 3,535.

Sectoral indices on the upswing were BSE oil and gas, up by 2.34 per cent, BSE Metal index was up by 2.22 per cent and BSE Consuner Durable index up by 1.51 per cent.

Reliance Industries led the gain right from the morning finally settling 3.32 per cent up at Rs 920.85.20 on expectations of good Q4 results. Reliance touched an intra-day high of Rs 931.20 which was even higher than the pre-demerger price of Rs 927 and Rs 218 more than the demerged price of Rs 714.

Reliance has gained 120 per cent on annualised basis from its demerged price of Rs 714, said an analyst.

Other gainers were - ACC, Tata Steel, Ranbaxy, Grasim Industries, BHEL,NTPC, Hindalco, Gujarat Ambuja Cements and ONGC.

Markets came down from all time high mark today as there was profit-booking in the sectors where valuations were over-stretched, said broker.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE informnation technology index was down by 1.45 per cent, BSE Technology index was down by 1.12 per cent and, BSE Auto index was down by 0.99 per cent and FMCG index was down by 0.25 per cent.

Wipro announced a 30 per cent rise in its revenue to Rs 10,626 crore, thus surpassing the Rs 10,000 crore mark in the fiscal ending March 31.

However, Wipro stock suffered today's meltdown in IT and technology sector and was down by 1.80 per cent this to Rs 559.90.

Earlier, it touched a high of Rs 598.90 as the Q4 results boosted the stock in the morning trade.

Other top losers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto, Wipro, Infosys, Cipla, Tata Power, HLL, Satyam Computers, Dr Reddys Lab., Tata Motors and Maruti.

UNI