Sensex closes at all time high of 14,403.77

Mumbai, Feb 2: The Sensex today closed at a historic high of 14,403.77 on the Bombay Stock Exchange with a handsome gain of 136.59 points on sustained heavy speculative demand from foreign Institutional Investors (FII's) and mutual funds.

The Sensex jumped up sharply by 312.85 points in the last two days. It had opened firm and kept advancing on strong demand for index pivotals. A lot of shares struck all-time high buoyed by strong results.

The 30-shares BSE Sensex finished 136.59 points higher, at 14,403.77, an all-time closing high. It had opened higher, at 14,293.11, and had gone on to attain an all-time high of 14,462.77 in intra day.

The BSE CG and TECK indices also shot up sharply by 235.71 points and 77.62 points respectively. They closed high at 9823.81 points for CG index and for TECK index at 3887.39 points, followed by CD index by 73.85 points and quoted at 3968.85 points, IT index by 44.06 and touching 5392.29 points, MID CAP index by 41.41 points and closed at 6118.20 points, HC index by 35.04 points and touched 3855.09 points and AUTO index by 28.06 points and closed at 5598.06 points.

Meanwhile, the S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE closed at a new peak at 4183.50 points with a modest gain of 46.30 points from its last close of 4137.20 points before it resumed firm at 4140.20 points. It recorded the day's an all time high at 4198.70 points and a low at 4132.95 points.

The new found vigour on the bourses is because of firm global markets after the US Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates steady.

The market-breadth was strong, as buying for small-cap and mid-cap stocks heightened. For 1,396 shares advanced, 1274 declined. A total of 52 remained unchanged. Analysts expect the action to stay in this space, outperforming large-cap peers on account of robust results.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to a healthy Rs 5433 crore, as compared to Rs 4012 crore on Thursday. Among the 30-member Sensex pack, 20 advanced while the rest declined.

The Nikkie index gained by 27.61 points to 17,547.11, the highest close since last April. Earlier, it rose as high as 17,633.61, its highest since July 2000. The Hang Hang index rose 133.52 points (0.65 per cent), to 20,563.68.

The Dow Jones industrial average shot up by 51.99 points, or 0.41 per cent to 12,673.68. The Standard&Poor's 500 Index gained 7.70 points, or 0.54 per cent, to 1,445.94.

The Nasdaq Composite Index rose by 4.45 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 2,468.38. The S&P 500 index had its highest close since-September 2000, while the Dow also reached a record intra-day high at 12,682.57.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell 84 cents, to settle at USD 57.30, a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose by USD 1.17 a barrel on Wednesday and by USD 2.96 on Tuesday. Brent crude for March delivery fell by 68 cents to USD 56.72 a barrel on London's ICE Futures exchange, brokers said.

Bharti Airtel was the top gainer, up by 5.39 per cent to Rs 771.05, on a volume of 5.72 lakh shares. It also struck an all-time high of Rs 777.20, in intra-day trade. Reliance Communications (RCL) was up by 3.54 per cent to Rs 490.55, after hitting a high of Rs 497. As many as 31.63 lakh shares changed hands in the RCL counter on BSE.

L&T (up 4.89 per cent to Rs 1679), HDFC (up 3.74 per cent to Rs 1735.05), and Reliance Energy (up 1.83 per cent to Rs 534.10) were the other gainers.

IT stocks saw renewed buying. Wipro (up 3.38 per cent to Rs 643.45), TCS (up 0.53 per cent to Rs 1299.40) and Satyam Computer (up 3.53 per cent to Rs 490.90) advanced. There were Market rumours about Wipro eyeing around USD 25 - 100 million foreign buys.

Gujarat Ambuja Cements advanced 2.48 per cent to Rs 142.80, on a volume of 23.15 lakh shares. Gujarat Ambuja Cements (GACL) declared its good December quarter numbers.

Maruti Udyog gained 0.61 per cent to Rs 945.05, as the company raised prices of its models by upto Rs 12,000. Prices of the Baleno sedan and Gypsy King multi-utility have been raised by Rs 12,000, while the Wagon R hatchback and newly launched Zen Estillo will cost Rs 3,500 more.

HFCL jumped by 10 per cent (maximum limit) to Rs 29, on huge volumes of 1.51 crore shares, with pending buy orders of 1.30 lakh shares on BSE.

Private sector steel firm, Tata Steel bounced back after declining sharply by around 12 per cent in the past two sessions, on concerns that it had paid an excessive price to acquire Corus. Tata Steel advanced 1.14 per cent to Rs 462.95, on a volume of 35.59 lakh shares. It had surged to a high of Rs 472.40 in intra-day trade.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) slipped in the red, down by 0.24 per cent to Rs 1372.30, on a volume of 7.84 lakh shares.

It had touched a high of Rs 1393.35.

NTPC was the top loser, down by 2.30 per cent to Rs 142.35, on a volume of 6.33 lakh shares.

PSU banking major, SBI, lost 2.20 per cent to Rs 1177, while Hero Honda slipped 1.22 per cent to Rs 715.25.

UNI