Banks lead bull charge

STOCK REPORT

Led by the banking shares, key indices rose over 1 per cent to end at record highs Friday. According to dealers, it's a liquidity-driven rally and as long as the foreign funds keep flowing, no major downside is likely. So far this month, the Sensex and Nifty have risen 6% each.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share Sensex ended at 9,284.46, up 114.06 points or 1.24 per cent over Thursday. The National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty closed at 2,810.15, up 31.60 points or 1.14 per cent.

Intra-day, the Sensex touched a high of 9,290.31 and low of 9137.16. The Nifty recorded a high and low of 2,814.90 and 2,766.50 respectively.

However, the market breadth stayed weak with losers outnumbering gainers 1270:1198. On the BSE, the B1 and B2 groups saw 52 per cent losers each. The A group, however, saw 71 per cent of the shares posting a gain.

"Valuations look a bit stretched at current levels and any correction would take the Sensex maximum to the 8,500 level and not beyond," said Alok Dalal, research analyst, India Infoline.

Punjab National Bank led the Nifty gainers with over 4per cent gain.

After opening weak, reports of a likely hike in foreign institutional investor limit to 24 per cent from 20 per cent lifted sentiment for public sector bank shares.

The CNX Bank Index ended nearly 2.6 per cent higher at 4,520.15.

However, a senior official from the finance ministry denied any such move.

Videsh Sanchar Nigam, ICICI Bank, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, and Housing Development Finance Corp were among other major gainers, up 3-4 per cent.

HDFC Bank bucked the trend in banking shares to end marginally lower.

Larsen & Toubro, Cipla, Zee Telefilms, and GAIL India were among other laggards, down 1 per cent each.

Among other second line indices, CNX Midcap and CNX IT Index ended 1per cent higher.

Hexaware Technologies led mid-caps with over 10 per cent gain, while Bharat Earth Movers featured among losers, down nearly 3per cent.