Sensex creates history during week

Mumbai, July 8: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex witnessed a historic week, as it breached its life-time high of 15,000 even as the National Stock Exchange (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty also scaled the 4,400 mark, buoyed by taming inflation, easing fears of interest rate hike, steady progress of monsoon and fresh build-up of positions in the derivatives markets.

''The market settled with gains in 4 out of 5 sessions in the week,'' market analysts pointed out and added that the Sensex gained 313 points to 14,964.12 this week, while the S&P CNX Nifty rose 67 points to 4, 384.85.

The week started on an upbeat note with the BSE 30-share Sensex gaining 13.75 points to 14,664.25 on Monday. Auto, capital goods and healthcare shares were in demand, while cement and information technology (IT) shares witnessed selling.

It jumped 142.25 points to 14,806.51 on Tuesday, with banking, telecom, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and construction stocks leading the rally.

The rally continued for the fifth straight trading seesion with the BSE Sensex advancing 73.73 points at 14,880.24 on Wednesday.

Shares from the metal, cement and sugar sectors saw buying, while IT pivotals were offloaded.

The five-day rally fizzled on Thursday, with the Sensex declining by 18.35 points to 14,861.89, in highly volatile trade. Auto and capital goods shares were in demand, while IT pivotals were offloaded. Realty major DLF debuted on the bourses on that day. It galloped by 102.23 points at 14,964.12, an all time closing high on Friday. It is pertinent to note here that it also struck a record high of 15,007.22 on that day.

India's wholesale price index rose 4.13 per cent in the 12 months to 23 June, this year, higher than the previous week's increase of 4.03 per cent due to a rise in some food and mineral prices, official data released on Friday revealed.

The week's gainers included Maruti Udyog, Tata Motors, M&M Hero Honda Motors, State Bank of India (SBI), Reliance Industries (RIL), Larsen and Toubro (L&T), ACC, Ambuja Cements, Grasim, UltraTech Cement Company and India Cements.

Th prominent laggard was state run oil exploration major ONGC's scrip that slipped as it sharply cut gas reserve estimates at one of its blocks in the Krishna Godavari Basin. The block is estimated to have 2.38 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of in-place gas reserves, much lower than its earlier estimate of 21 TCF, analysts reasoned.

Meanwhile, real-estate major DLF settled at Rs 570.05, a premium of 8.57 per cent over the initial public offering (IPO) price of Rs 525 per share on Thursday. The scrip debuted at Rs 582 and touched a high of Rs 714.25 and a low of Rs 505.60 during the day on the premier BSE, while the counter saw high volumes of 3.42 crore shares.

UNI