Market hits record high for the tenth consecutive trading session

The market surged today in a volatile trade, with both the niche indices, BSE Sensex and S&P CNX Nifty, striking all-time highs. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries surged. Pharma pivotals edged lower whereas IT pivotals rallied. Market breadth which was strong earlier during the day, turned weak in mid-afternoon trade.

Asian markets were mixed after firm opening. European markets were in the green.

Sensex ended up 518.42 points or 2.99% at 17,847.04 an all time closing high. It had hit a fresh all-time high of 17,953.07 in early afternoon trade. It hit a low of 17,288.41 during mid-afternoon trade. Sensex opened with a upward gap of 138.79 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty was up 141.85 points or 2.8% at 5,210.80, an all-time closing high. It hit an all-time high of 5,261.35 in early afternoon trade today.

Market had come sharply off the higher level to slip into the red for a short while in mid-afternoon trade. At day's low of 17288.41, it had declined 40 points for the day. At day's high of 17,953.07, Sensex had risen 624.45 points for the day.

The market had spurted in opening trade with Sensex and S&P CNX Nifty hitting all-time highs after more bad news on the US housing market kept alive hopes of further US interest rate cuts after last month’s steep 50 basis points cut in fed funds rate to 4.75% from 5.25%.

The market has been a roll with the Sensex hitting record high in each of the past ten trading sessions from 19 September 2007 to 3 October 2007. Heavy FII buying and hopes of a further cut interest rates by the US Federal Reserve at its next policy meeting on 30 October 2007-31 October 2007 has boosted bourses. From a low of 13,989.11 on 21 August 2007, Sensex galloped a whopping 3,857.93 points or 27.57% to 17,847.04 on Wednesday, 3 October 2007.

BSE Mid-Cap index rose 13.36 points or 0.18% to 7,542 today. It hit an all time high of 7,678.70 today. BSE Small-Cap index declined 82.21 points or 0.9% to 9,102.31. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

Sectoral indices on BSE displayed mixed trend. BSE Realty index (up 6.46% to 9,775.19), BSE IT Index (up 4.02% at 4,783), BSE TecK index (up 3.31% to 3,905.77) and BSE Oil and Gas Index (up 3.23% at 9,995.27) , outperformed the Sensex.

BSE Capital Goods Index (up 2.59% at 15,609.20), BSE Health Care Index (down 0.56% at 3,815.80), BSE PSU index (up 1.89% to 8,520.96), BSE Metal Index (up 1.88% at 13,899.77), BSE Consumer Durables index (down 0.52% to 4,739.97), Bankex (up 1.67% to 9,552.68) and BSE FMCG Index (up 0.31% at 2,157.78), BSE Auto Index (up 1.42% at 5,391.60) were underperformers.

Turnover soared. BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 10024 crore compared to Monday (1 October 2007)’s Rs 7228.53 crore.

NSE's F&O segment clocked a turnover of Rs 1,00,056 crore today 3 October 2007 compared to turnover of Rs 61,451.29 crore today, 1 October 2007.

Nifty October 2007 futures were trading at 5,229.70, at a premium of 18.9 points or 0.36% to the spot price of 5,210.80.

The market breadth was weak on BSE: 1076 scrips advanced 1,689 scrips declined and 312 scrips remained unchanged.

Out of the Sensex pack, 24 scrips advanced while rest declined.

India's largest private sector company and oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) was up 4.55% to Rs 2,393.55. It hit an all-time high of Rs 2,443.90 in the early afternoon trade today. As per reports, RIL paid 46% higher advance tax to Rs 649 crore in the second advance tax installment ended 15 September 2007, over 15 September 2006.

IT bigwigs firmed today on hopes quarterly earnings from the beaten down sector may not be as bad as widely feared. India’s second largest IT services exporter in terms of revenue Infosys was up 5.72% to Rs 2,001.40, and was the top gainer amongst the Sensex pack. TCS (up 3.99% to Rs 1,079.95), Satyam (up 1.86% to Rs 451) edged higher. Wipro rose 3.68% to Rs 470.65. Infosys kickstarts earnings reporting season on Thursday, 11 October 2007.

Pharma majors declined today. Cipla was down 1.93% to Rs 185. It was the top loser among the Sensex pack. Dr. Reddys Laboratories (down 0.49% to Rs 655.25), Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 0.54% to 438.60) were the major losers among the Sensex pack.

Hindustan Unilever lost 0.92% to Rs 220.35.

Ambuja Cements (down 1.63% to Rs 144.95) declined after its September 2007 cement shipments fell 4.2% to 12.9 lakh tonnes from 13.4 lakh tonnes in September 2006

Shares of power generation and distribution companies hogged the limelight. Tata Power Company surged 13.22% to Rs 1,031.25. It hit an all-time high of Rs 1,150. Reliance Energy rose 7.48% to Rs 1,450.40 on a volatile trade, It hit an all-time high of Rs 1,488.40. It was the top gainer from the Sensex pack. NTPC rose 5.34% to Rs 217, It hit an all time high of Rs 222.40.

The rally in power stocks was attributed to the proposed public issue of Reliance Power. The unlisted power arm of Anil Ambani is planning additional capacity worth 25,000 mega watts through new projects.

Reliance Communications rose 5.03% to Rs 642.65. It hit an all-time high of Rs 660 today.

ONGC was up 2.76% to Rs 1,024.60. It hit an all-time high of Rs 1,052 today.

India's largest real estate developer in terms of revenue, DLF rose 16.41% to Rs 892.75. It hit an all-time high of Rs 904 today. The Karnataka government has awarded the 9,187-acre Bidadi Knowledge City, which will be positioned as New Bangalore, to DLF. Dubai-government owned Limitless will own half the venture.

Among side counters, Amrit Banaspati (up 69.02% to Rs 7.65), ITL Industries (up 20% to Rs 54.40), Kerala Ayurveda (up 20% to Rs 88.95), Nagpur Power (up 19.93% to Rs 54.45) were the major gainers.

Resonance Specialities (down 13.86% to Rs 10.75), RoseLabs (down 10.58% to Rs 5.75), Acknit Knitting (down 12.62% to Rs 42.60) and Amit Spinning (down 10.07% to Rs 6.79) were the major losers.

BSE Capital Goods index was the second largest gainer among the sectoral indices on BSE. Larsen and Toubro (L&T), India's largest engineering and construction company in India in terms of revenue rose 2.9% to Rs 2,074.20. It has reportedly floated a new arm, L&T Power Projects (L&T PPL), to foray into the booming power generation business.

Bharat Heavy Electricals was up 4.23% to Rs 2,074.20. Suzlon Energy had jumped 5.55% to Rs 1,556 after it secured an order from property developer DLF to build a wind farm with a total turbine capacity of 150 mega watt in Gujarat.

ACC went up 1.54% to Rs 1228.45 after it said its September 2007 shipments rose 10.7% to 15.5 lakh tonnes from 14 lakh tonnes in September 2006.

ICICI Bank soared 2.83% to Rs 1088 on reports it plans to raise $11 billion overseas in the next 12 months to fund its expansion abroad and credit growth in India.

Tata Motors moved up 2.15% to Rs 789.60, after it announced on Monday, 1 October 2007, its sales of commercial vehicles in the domestic market rose 1.5% to 27,036 units in September 2007 over September 2006.

ABG Heavy Industries was locked at upper limit of 5% at Rs 300.65 on BSE on reports two container ship operators are looking to purchase a stake in the company

Anjani Synthetics hit 5% upper circuit to Rs 85.10 after it said its board would meet on Oct 23 October 2007 to consider issue of bonus shares.

Zenotech Laboratories hit 10% upper circuit at Rs 167.30 ahead of the firm's board meeting to consider a preferential issue of shares to financial investors.

Asian markets, which opened before Indian markets, were mixed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (down 2.55% to 27,479.94), Singapore's Straits Times (down 1.03% to 3,754.62) edged lower. Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (up 0.8% to 9,700.71) and Japan's Nikkei (up 0.9% at 17,199.89) edged higher.

European markets, which opened after the Indian markets were mixed. UK’s FTSE 100 (up 0.33% to 6,521.80) and Germany’s DAX (up 0.12% to 7,955.74) edged higher. Whereas, France’s CAC (down 0.15% to 5,790.76) edged lower.

US blue-chip stocks edged lower on Tuesday, 2 October 2007, as investors booked profits a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record high. Dow lost 40.24 points or 0.29% at 14,047.31. But the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose 6.12 points or 0.2% at 2,747.11.