Uneasy calm after an historic run

STOCK REPORT

The steep rally in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30-share Sensex was slowed down on Friday as it managed to rise only by 7.45 points but ended at a new high of 8,060 on increased all-round buying.

The BSE Sensex index opened better at 8,060.89 as against yesterday's close of 8,052.56 and rose further to a new intra-day high of 8,077.74. Later, it fell sharply to a low of 8,015.75 on fresh profit-selling at higher level and closed at 8,060.01, showing a marginal gain of 0.09 per cent over the previous close.

However, the Sensex was expected to remain above the 8,000 level next week too as the market fundamentals were strong, brokers said. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were reportedly extending their long positions in futures and have stepped up activity since last couple of weeks with net investments of over Rs 800 crore in September so far.

Operators and private mutual funds also were believed to be heavy buyers in select stocks which promise high returns at the prevailing price levels, they said.

Meanwhile, inflation fell marginally to 3.01 per cent in the week ended August 27 from 3.08 per cent a week ago and Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would take necessary steps to contain inflation, which also was an encouraging news for the market, a broker said.

Banking shares were in keen demand as SBI, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank rose smartly, lifting the Bankex steeply high by 80.72 points to close at 4719.89 as against yesterday's close of 4639.17. The broad-based BSE-100 index rose by 5.45 points to 4311.37 from 4305.92 yesterday.

The BSE-200 index and the Dollex-200 were quoted better at 1042.41 and 96.14 from the previous level of 1041.06 and 395.18. The BSE-500 index improved by 1.74 to 3366.85 from yesterday's close of 3365.11 and the Dollex-30 ended higher at 1510.45 from 1507.33.

In the specified group 81 scrips, including 12 index based closed firm, while 114 declined. The volume of business dropped to Rs 3807.94 crores from Rs 4000.02 crore yesterday.

Sterlinbio clocked the highest turnover of Rs 443.67 crore followed by Sasken (Rs 421.38 crore), Bharti (Rs 261.38 crore), RIL (Rs 114.04 crore) and SBI (Rs 81.15 crore).