Sensex, Nifty strike record highs on hopes of pick up in FII inflow

The market surged today to hit record high on renewed buying in blue chips in anticipation of more foreign fund inflows if the United States cut rates as expected. Sensex settled above 20,000 mark for the first time. Nifty closed above 6,000 level for the first time. The US Federal Reserve is expected to cut Fed funds rate by at least 25 basis points at its policy meeting to be held later today, 11 December 2007.

Asian markets were trading higher today, 11 December 2007. However, European markets, which opened after Indian market, were in red.

Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank were major gainers from Sensex. Infosys and DLF were major losers from Sensex pack. Banking, realty, auto and metal stocks edged higher. Except BSE IT index all the other sectoral indices on BSE were in green. Reliance Industries gained. BSE Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices hit all-time highs. Market breadth was strong.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 360.21 points or 1.81% to 20,290.89, a record closing high. Sensex hit all-time high of 20,333.06 in late trade. At day's high, Sensex had gained 402.38 points.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty jumped 136.65 points or 2.29% at 6,097.25, a record closing high. Nifty hit all-time high of 6,111.20 today.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 8179 crore compared to Monday (10 December 2007)'s Rs 7,420.72 crore.

Nifty December 2007 futures were at 6096.35, at a slight discount of 0.90 points as compared to the spot closing of 6097.25.

The NSE's futures & options (F&O) segment turnover was Rs 59,421.97 crore, which was higher than Rs 47,277.77 crore on Monday, 10 December 2007.

BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.76% to 9,186.98. It hit an all-time high of 9,268.23 today. BSE Small-Cap index rose 1.19% to 11,667.84. It hit an all-time high of 11,740.96 today. Both these indices underperformed Sensex.

BSE Bankex (up 2.54% to 11,778.71), BSE Metal index (up 1.89% to 19,054.59), BSE Realty index (up 3.04% to 12,182.32) outperformed Sensex.

BSE Auto index (up 1.48% to 5,761.43), BSE Capital Goods index (up 0.84% to 20,299.75), BSE FMCG index (up 0.43% to 2,169.62), BSE IT index (down 0.01% to 4,432.45), BSE Oil & Gas index (up 1.77% to 12,965.44), BSE Power index (up 0.49% to 4,523.55) and BSE PSU index (up 1.8% to 10,086.09) underperformed Sensex.

Market breadth was strong. On BSE, 1,948 stocks advanced, 892 stocks declined and 28 stocks remained unchanged. 25 out of 30 stocks advanced in the Sensex pack.

Bharti Airtel (up 6.21% to Rs 1,030.70), ONGC (up 3.68% to Rs 1,238.45) spurted.

India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization & oil refiner Reliance Industries rose 1.99% to Rs 2,878.75. As per reports, Reliance Industries (RIL), has struck a deal to explore uranium in Australia, as soaring demand and prices turn the heavy radioactive metal into a lucrative commodity. RIL, through its subsidiary RIL (Australia), has signed an agreement with Uranium Exploration Australia (UXA) to buy 49% in eight exploration blocks owned by the company in South Australia and Northern Territory, reports suggest.

Banking stocks gained. HDFC Bank (up 4.81% to Rs 1,774.70),Indian Overseas Bank (up 4.93% to Rs 185.30), ICICI Bank (up 3.32% to Rs 1,316.05), and State Bank of India (up 0.88% to Rs 2,445.85) edged higher.

Realty stocks surged. Ansal Propertes & Infrastructure (up 17.51% to Rs 341.65), Unitech (up 8.48% to Rs 479.80), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 1.35% to Rs 723.50) edged higher. DLF declined 1.2% to Rs 1,013.55.

Metal stocks rose. Shri Precoated Steel (up 10% to Rs 382.10), National Aluminium Company (up 5.75% to Rs 404.75), Sterlite Industries (up 2.81% to Rs 1,104.80), Steel Authority of India (up 2.12% to Rs 276.90), Hindalco Industries (up 3.34% to Rs 199.55), Tata Steel (up 0.28% to Rs 835.85) edged higher.

Auto stocks also gained. Tata Motors (up 0.7% to Rs 771.65), Maruti suzuki India (up 3.17% to Rs 1,078.50), Hero Honda Motors (up 2.05% to Rs 700.30) and Bajaj Auto (up 3% to Rs 2,793.90) edged higher.

Infosys (down 0.31% to Rs 1,743.05), Ambuja Cements (down 0.27% to Rs 150.50), Reliance Energy (down 0.02% to Rs 1,945.65) and Bharat Heavy Electricals (down 0.27% to Rs 2,670.25) edged lower.

Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) clocked the highest volume of 3.23 crore shares on BSE. The stock declined 1.02% to Rs 58.40. IKF Technologies rose 20% to Rs 9.49 and clocked second highest volume of 2.73 crore shares. Himachal Fuutris Communications rose 5% to Rs 36.80 and clocked the third highest volume of 2.43 crore shares. G V Films declined 3.5% to Rs 7.71 and clocked the fourth highest volume of 1.77 crore shares. IFCI rose 1.42% to Rs 107.50 and clocked the fifth highest volume of 1.72 crore shares.

Lanco Infratech clocked the highest turnover of 210.75 crore on BSE. The stock rose 15.83% to Rs 699.50. Reliance Petroleum (Rs 209.32 crore), Tata Teleservices Maharashtra (Rs 192.73 crore), IFCI (Rs 186.94 crore) and Reliance Energy (Rs 128.18 crore) were other turnover toppers on BSE in that order.

European markets were trading in red. France’s CAC 40 (down 0.44% to 5,725.68), Germany’s DAX (down 0.26% to 8,012.24) and UK’s FTSE 10 (down 0.56% to 6,528.80) edged lower.

Asian markets were trading higher today, 11 December 2007. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (up 2.55% at 29,226.84), Japan's Nikkei (up 0.76% at 16,044.72), Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (up 0.47% at 8,638.33), Straits Times (up 1.03% at 3,589.74), Shanghai Composite (up 0.25% to 5,175.08), South Korea's Seoul Composite (up 0.98% at 1,925.07) edged higher.

US markets ended higher yesterday, 10 December 2007 ahead of Fed rate decision. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 101.45 points, or 0.74%, to 13,727.03. The Standard & Poor's 500 index shot up 11.30 points, or 0.75%, to 1,515.96. The Nasdaq Composite index advanced 12.79 points, or 0.47%, to 2,718.95.

As per latest data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), existing open-ended equity schemes of mutual funds which includes equity linked saving schemes (ELSS) witnessed a net inflow of Rs 3004 crore in November 2007. Equity schemes mopped up Rs 2441 crore in new fund offerings (NFOs) in the month. This pertains to collections in those NFOs with respect to which allotment was completed in the month.