Bellwether scales 17K

Key indices touched new record highs today with Sensex touching the high of 17143 (crossing 17000 first time after May 2008) and Nifty crossing its 5088 level again on intra-day basis.

The market resumed at 16852.91 marginally up on firm global cues and the mood remained upbeat on strong buying in banking, automobile and capital goods (CG) stocks. Sensex added 274 points to its kitty to close at 17127, while Nifty added 77 points to close at 5084

Number of advancing shares outdid declining shares. On BSE, 1,598 stocks advanced, while 1,183 stocks declined. Seventy-seven stocks remained unchanged. Banking, automobile and CG stocks saw buying interest with BSE Auto and BSE CG rising by 3.69% and 2.13% respectively. BSE FMCG and BSE CD were down marginally.

Among major gainers, State Bank of India flared 5.01% to Rs2,195.70, ICICI Bank added 4.63% to Rs904.80, Maruti Suzuki India shot up by 3.70% to Rs1,698.90, Mahindra & Mahindra rose 3.46% to Rs881.20, Sterlite Industries moved up 3.46% to Rs775.35, Wipro advanced 3.30% to Rs601.75, while Reliance Communications, DLF, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Larsen & Toubro, HDFC Bank were up by 2-3%. Among scrips that were down were ONGC that dropped 1.25% to Rs1,171.30, ITC that slipped 1.07% to Rs231.90, Grasim Industries that shed 0.73% to quote at Rs2,768.35 and Bharti Airtel down that was down by measly 0.07% to trade at Rs418.55.

Ispat Industries was the most actively traded share, with over 81.42 lakh shares changing hands on BSE followed by GTL Infrastructure (73.44 lakh shares), Unitech (66.10 lakh shares), Suzlon Energy (63.24 lakh shares) and Ambuja Cement (62.65 lakh shares).