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Sensex, Nifty close at an all-time high of 4710, 1341

Equities staged a late rally at the Bombay Stock Exchange today. The 30-share benchmark index, the Sensex, closed at an all-time high of 4710, up 94 points or 2.03 per cent from yesterday's close of 4615. In the morning session, the Sensex touched a low of 4568. FIIs and operators extended the sharp gains of Monday and their consolidation on Tuesday.

At the National Stock Exchange, the S&P CNX Nifty too closed at an all-time high of 1340.95. In the inter-bank foreign exchange market, the rupee closed at Rs 43.24 to the US dollar.

The Sensex recorded a new all-time high by breaching the 4,700 mark for the first time ever, creating history at the 125-year-old bourse following heavy buying by foreign funds and institutional investors in the index-based counters.

The Sensex opened at 4627.23 points, touched the day's low of 4527.19 points but shot up to create history and touched day's high of 4710.25 points and remained there till the day's close, showing a net gain of 95.05 points from the previous close of 4615.20 points.

The shares of cement, steel, auto-ancillary were in limelight alongwith index heavyweights, dealers said.

The broad-based BSE-100 index closed higher by 40.55 points by crossing the 2,000 mark at 2030.91 points from the previous close of 1990.36 points.

Pivotals like ACC, MTNL, HCL Info, Cadbury's hit the circuit-filters registering record highs while MTNL, Videocon too staged rallies on heavy buying support, dealers said.

The Sensex has recorded an whopping gain of 569.52 points in last ten consecutive sessions at the BSE.

The share prices also staged a smart rally at another leading bourse, the National Stock Exchange, where the S&P CNX Nifty Index gained further by 13.70 points to 1335.15 points from the previous close of 1321.45 points.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices closed higher by 9.37 and 3.57 points to 464.69 and 178.92 points as against the previous close of 455.32 and 175.35 points.

The market which is passing through a bullish phase after the worries of war between India and Pakistan were over following Pakistan's decision of withdrawal of their forces from Kargil have now clearly shifted their attention to country's economy, analysts said.

The current boom is unlike the one the market witnessed in 1992 when the securities scam was behind it. The foreign investors are genuinely buying in fundamentally strong shares and it is likely to continue, said a leading stock broker.

Total turnover on the BOLT system reported during the day was Rs 21.77 billion which came from a trading of 100.8 million shares in 262,873 trades during the course of trading.

Petrochem major Reliance continued to top the list of turnover by registering the highest turnover of Rs 1.91 billion, followed by Satyam Computers Rs 1.60 billion, MTNL Rs 1.30 billion, Pentafour Software Rs 1.13 billion, SBI Rs 967 million and ACC Rs 884.1 million.

Other actively traded counters were Telco (Rs 878.7 million), Zee Telefilms (Rs 848.9 million), Infosys Technologies (Rs 779 million), Digital Equipment (Rs 741.5 million), L&T (Rs 741.5 million), ITC (Rs 598.4 million), Tisco (Rs 596 million), Ranbaxy Rs 531.9 million) and Sterlite (Rs 419.1 million).

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