Sensex closes at new high of 14515.90, gains 112.23 pts

Mumbai, Feb 5: The Sensex, backed by the rally in Banking and Communication stocks, today closed at a new record high of 14,515.90 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, registering an impressive gain of 112.23 points.

The 50-stocks Nifty index too ended at a historic high of 7358.28 points, netting a gain of 54.95 points.

Marketmen attributed the continuous northward journey on the bourses to the heavy buying spree from both foreign and domestic institutional investors.

Some of the marketmen felt that it was depressed buying while others said that it was a budget euphoria and the investors do not want to left out from buying their favourite stocks in the pre-budget rally.

Reflecting the firm trend, the Sensex opened at 14232.09 points as compared to the last week's close of 14402.75 points, touching the day's high of 14526.51 points before touching the day's low of 14372.36 points. The benchmark index of the BSE finally closed at 14,515.90 points.

The market sidelined the negative factors such as concern expressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the rising inflation rate and nervousness in the Asian markets, which were mostly lower on profit booking by market players today.

Banking stocks such as HDFC, SBI fuelled the rally followed by a good show by Power Sector stocks such as Tata Power and Reliance Energy and the Mobile Service Providers, Reliance Communication and Bharati Tele. The Automobile sector, represented by M&M and Bajaj auto and Hero Honda, too aided the trend.

The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Cement, and IT heavyweights Infosys, Satyam Computer were flat on limited buying.

UNI