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Operators' squaring-up checks Sensex surge; index still ends at all-time high of 4870.66

The Sensex today peaked to yet another historic high at 4896.09 as bullish sentiment ensured the key index's slow-but-steady rally towards the magical 5000-mark at the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

Equities maintained their rally on short-covering by domestic operators ahead of the end of the current trading cycle today and brisk support extended by foreign institutional investors.

Mirroring the uptrend, the BSE-Sensitive Index remained above yesterday's closing levels throughout the day. It opened at a new all-time high of 4875.28 as against the previous close of 4846.36. It touched another record high of 4896.09 as bullish sentiments remained. It touched an intra-day low of 4851.60 on profit-booking in key scrips by financial institutions. Finally, the Sensex ended the day at 4870.66, 24.3 points or 0.50 per cent over yesterday's levels.

Marketmen said that expectations ran high that the Sensex would breach the 4900-mark. However, squaring up by some major operators, who were long in the market led the index to close below this level.

FIIs and domestic operators were buying in Zee Telefilms, IPCL, HPCL, ACC, Glaxo, Ranbaxy and Tata Donnelly counters.

Infotech scrips were on the downtrend on selling pressure.

ACC ended Rs 12 higher at Rs 257, Zee Telefilms up by Rs 244 at Rs 3,289, Ranbaxy up Rs 45 at Rs 1,061 and IPCL up by Rs 8 to Rs 133.

Prominent among those that lost value were Infosys Technologies Rs 5,500 (down Rs 94), Pentafour Software Rs 574 (down Rs 16), Satyam Computers Rs 868 (down Rs 22), HLL Rs 2700 (down Rs 4), ITC Rs 1,050 (down Rs 3) and L&T Rs 410 (down Rs 4).

The total turnover on the BOLT network of the BSE was Rs 25.52 billion from trading in 108 million shares.

Ranbaxy Labs topped the turnover list with Rs 3.57 billion, followed by ITC (Rs 1.56 billion) and ACC (Rs 1.36 billion).

Other scrips that recorded a high turnover were Zee Telefilms, L&T, Reliance, Digital, Tisco, Telco, SBI, Tata Tea, Satyam Computers, BSES, Videocon and MTNL.

UNI

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