Sensex opens at a new high of 14,165.77 pts

Mumbai, Jan 18: The Sensitive index of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Sensex, today opened at a peak of 14,165.77 points against 14,131.34 on the previous day close on fresh speculative demand by FIIs and mutual funds.

The Sensex zoomed to a new high this morning as equities, led by index heavyweights Reliance Industries (1.8 per cent), ONGC (2.55 per cent), TCS (1.8 per cent), Wipro (1.3 per cent), Infosys Technologies (1 per cent) and Reliance Communications (1.2 per cent) vaulted to higher levels on strong buying enquiries.

ACC, Satyam Computers, HDFC, Cipla and State Bank of India are up by nearly one per cent. Ranbaxy Laboratories, Gujarat Ambuja Cements, Maruti Udyog, Reliance Energy, Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, BHEL, ICICI Bank and NTPC have also recorded impressive gains.

Later, around 22 points down from a new lifetime high of 14,266.44, the Sensex is up with a sparkling gain of 112.84 points or 0.8 per cent at present.

The Nifty index of NSE, which raced to a high of 4124.55 this morning, is up by 42.80 points or 1.05 per cent over its previous closing mark, at 4119.25.

The mood is so upbeat in morning trade that only Tata Steel was down by 0.25 per cent among the Sensex components and has failed to make it to the positive territory at present.

Dabur India, Jet Airways, GAIL India, Zee Telefilms, VSNL, SAIL, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Mahindra&Mahindra, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Suzlon Energy, Siemens, Punjab National Bank and IPCL are among the prominent gainers in the Nifty.

With a number of stocks from the Midcap and Smallcap space moving up sharply, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices have climbed up by 1.13 per cent and 1.43 per cent, respectively, brokers said.

UNI