Sensex ends at record high, gains 125.76 pts

Mumbai, Jan 7: The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive index today zoomed to a new life-time high, closing at a record 20,812.65, to gain 125.76 points despite week global cues on prevailing worries over the US econmy crisis.

The benchmark Sensex recovered early losses and hit a new intraday all-time high at 20,861.83, gaining 323.64 points from a day-low of 20,438.19 on sustained buying in blue-chip indices in late trading session. Sensex resumed the day on a weak note at 20,637.21 from its previous close of 20,686.89 on weak global cues and further slipped into the deep red on heavy profit booking in early trading session. However, it recovered smartly in mid-morning and sustained the gains till its closing.

Meanwhile, the National Stock Exchange's (NSE's) Nifty index ended almost flat at 6,279.10 from its previous close at 6,274.30, after fluctuating with a diffrence of about 100 points. Nifty touched day's high of 6,289.80 and low of 6,193.35 before ending with a slight gain of 4.80 points in late trade.

BSE Sensex pared gains after it hit a record high in mid-afternoon trade. The market had recovered in the mid-morning trade from an initial slump, traders said.

The BSE Mid-Cap index ended down by 0.11 pc to 10,102.23 and it underperformed Sensex. The BSE Small-Cap index ended 0.66 pc up to 13,975.19 and it outperformed Sensex. BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 10,673 crore compared to previous Rs 11,039.61 crore turnover last Friday.

On BSE sectoral index, FMCG, Reality and Bankex indices led the positive rally and ended with a gain of 3.30, 2.48 and 2.41 per cent respectively. IT and metal indices were the major losers, ending with a loss of about 3 per cent and Auto stocks ended with marginal losses.

Asian markets were trading weak. US stocks tumbled last Friday, as a sharp rise in US unemployment rate in December 2007, heightened the worries over US economy crisis.

Frontline stocks, Reliance Industries rose 0.91 pc to Rs 3,013. Reliance Energy gained 1.26 pc to Rs 2,542 on reports Reliance Power, in which it holds 50 pc stake, is reportedly planning to tap the inorganic route and explore possibilities of taking over existing government power projects, including Ratnagiri Gas and Power plant at Dabhol, to scale up its generation capacity.

ICICI Bank went up 6.11 pc and State Bank of India gained 0.51 pc.

HDFC Bank declined 2.38pc to Rs 1,657 and Realty stocks surged as Indiabulls Real Estate gained 6.45pc, DLF went up 2.09 pc and Unitech gained 2.54pc. Parsvnath Developers surged 8.52pc after the company said during the market hours it had bagged a Rs 90 crore contract to build Sai Ashram at Shirdi.

However, IT stock slipped on reports of rising unemployment rate in United States, which triggered worries that the US economy may head towards recession. Infosys came down 3.23pc, Wipro was down 2.79pc, Tata Consultancy Services came down 2.9pc. Indian IT companies derive more than half of their revenues from the US market.

UNI