Strong global cues lift Sensex to new high

The Sensex extended its gains for the sixth straight session and touched the 20,000 mark on the back of strong global cues. Driven by a strong surge in banking, capital goods, and oil stocks, the Sensex zoomed to touch the all-time high of 20,024 by afternoon. Investors seemed optimistic about the rate cut ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's mid-term review of the annual policy and the US Federal Reserve meeting on October 31. Substantial buying in HDFC, BHEL, and L&T also helped the Sensex touch its record new high. The market witnessed hectic activity during the last hour of the trading session and the Sensex closed the session with a gain 735 points at 19,978. The Nifty, too, surged on substantial buying and moved up by 204 points to close at 5,906.

The broader market was positive. Of the 2,841 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 1,579 stocks advanced, 1,200 stocks declined and 62 stocks ended unchanged. The BSE Capital Goods index led the surge in the sectoral indices and rose 7.05% at 19,848, followed by the BSE Oil & Gas index (up 5.01%), while the BSE Bankex index and the BSE PSU index gained over 3% each.

Buying was led by L&T, which notched up gains of 10.33% at Rs4,277. Among the other gainers HDFC advanced 9.63% at Rs2,813, BHEL added 7.42% at Rs2,612, ONGC moved up 7.15% at Rs1,239, HDFC Bank jumped by 5.99% at Rs1,639, ICICI Bank gained 5.48% at Rs1,249 and Reliance Industries was up 5.03% at Rs2,828. However, Tata Steel tumbled 9.06% at Rs900.90, while M&M, Bajaj Auto, Ranbaxy, Tata Motors, Cipla, TCS and Dr Reddy's Lab closed marginally down.

Over 4.19 crore Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Tata Teleservices (3.53 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (2.50 crore shares), Himachal Futuristic Communication (1.31 crore shares) and Power Grid Corporation (1.14 crore shares).

Value-wise, Reliance Petroleum registered a turnover of Rs542 crore on the BSE followed by L&T (Rs469 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs448 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs314 crore) and Reliance Energy (Rs248 crore)