Sensex Crosses 4000-Barrier On Brisk All-Round Buying

The fresh rally in the front-line shares pushed the Sensex beyond the psychological 4000 barrier on the Bombay Stock Exchange yesterday in the wake of continued and aggressive buying by speculators as well as foreign institutional investors (FIIs).

However, late profittaking at higher levels at pre-close brought down the Sensex to end at 4029.99 as against overnight close of 3982.95, showing a net gain of 47.04 points. The BSE-100 index also moved up further by 19.25 points to 1726.71 from 1707.46 previously.

FIIs and local operators were making hectic all-round purchases, particularly Fera shares, at a premium of Rs 5 to Rs 6 to the ruling prices even on the last day of the current settlements, brokers said.

 

Even a Fera scrip like Colgate, which was considered as fundamentally not so good, scored impressive rise on heavy buying from foreign funds and operators. The present Sensex level was crucial and the market mood could be judged only during the next week as a section of broking fraternity expect reaction at this level. Analysts said although the players had discounted the imminent hike in the prices of petroleum products on assumption it would not be over 15 per cent, the market would react sharply if the price hike was more than this level.

The voluntary disclosure scheme introduced in the budget was also expected to have negative impact on the sentiment. ITC, ACC, Colgate, Hind Lever, Castrol, Siemens and MTNL recorded sharp gains. Reliance Industries, HPCL and HDFC reacted substantially.

Software scrips and refinery scrips came under selling pressure yesterday and shed some of the gains made during the week. Infosys Technologies and Tata Infotech among the software stocks, and HPCL, Madras Refineries and ONGC among the refinery stocks figured among the losers of the day.