COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES
SEARCH REDIFF

Equities rise sharply; Nifty scales all-time high, posts record close at 1402.50

Share prices rose sharply on renewed buying support by bull operators and foreign institutional investors, lifting the S&P CNX Nifty above the historic 1400-mark and the S&P CNX 500 above the 1,000 mark at the National Stock Exchange today.

Mirroring the buoyant trend, the S&P CNX Nifty opened higher at 1371.90, touched a record intra-day high of 1408.15 and closed at an all-time high 1402.50, gaining 30.85 points or 2.24 per cent over the previous day's close of 1371.65.

The S&P CNX 500 index opened steady at 982.30, also crossed the 1000-mark, testing a record high of 1002.15 before closing at an all-time high of 1001.20 points, improving by 18.90 points over 982.30 of the previous day.

The CNX Nifty Junior shot up by 42.90 points to 2518.65 from 2475.75 while the S&P CNX Defty moved up by 24.80 points to 1116.895 from 1092.05. The CNX Midcap 200 also appreciated by 15.65 points to 916.70 from 901.05.

The NSE witnessed trades worth Rs 21.49 billion, involving 91.78 million shares in 342,523 trades. Turnover in debentures stood at Rs 230.4 million.

About 825 securities advanced, 317 declined, 42 remained unchanged and 164 securities hit their price bands today.

The top S&P CNX Nifty gainers were: Asian Paints which shot up by 8.01 per cent to Rs 405.25 from Rs 375.20, Tata Tea (8.01 per cent to Rs 561.75 from Rs 520.10), Indian Hotels Company (8 per cent to Rs 455.55 from Rs 421.80), ICICI (7.67 per cent to Rs 83.50 from Rs 77.55 and BSES (7.47 per cent to Rs 233.85 from Rs 217.60).

The losers included Castrol which slid by 2.12 per cent to Rs 441.65 from Rs 451.20, ABB 1.30 per cent to Rs 457.20, Bajaj Auto 0.60 per cent to Rs 481.95, Hindalco 0.49 per cent to Rs 927 and Infosys Technologies 0.47 per cent to Rs 5587.90.

L&T registered the highest turnover of Rs 2 billion, followed by ITC Rs 1.87 billion, ACC Rs 1.34 billion, Global Telesystems Rs 992.5 million, Satyam Computers Rs 971.3 million, Telco Rs 964.4 million, Zee Telefilms Rs 945.2 million, Ranbaxy Rs 901.6 million and Tata Tea Rs 840.2 million.

The other actively traded counters were: SBI Rs 775.8 million, Digital Equipment Rs 762.7 million, Pentafour Software Rs 648.1 million, Reliance Rs 616.5 million, Square D Software Rs 400.3 million, BSES Rs 381.6 million and Tisco Rs 356.3 million.

The wholesale debt market of the NSE witnessed a turnover of Rs 5 billion today. Corporate debentures were traded for Rs 1.65 million.

UNI

ALSO SEE

A day of rumours savages stock markets

Business news