Brisk buying buoys Sensex to scale 25-month high

The popular Sensex at BSE rose 243.06 points or 1.37 per cent to close at 17,935.68 this day, which is its highest closing since February 19, 2008. The bellwether index of BSE rose 255.92 points at the day’s high of 17,948.54 in late trade, while it 1.04 points at day’s low of 17,693.66 in early trade.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty at NSE rose 77.90 points or 1.47 per cent to settle at 5,368.40 in Monday’s closing, which is its highest closing since February 5, 2008. Nifty hit an intra-day high of 5,377.55.

The BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.45 per cent, while the BSE Small-Cap index rose 1.97 per cent. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong with as many as 2224 shares on BSE advanced as compared with 642 that declined. A total of 59 shares remained unchanged.

Total turnover

The markets reported total turnover of Rs 76,846.68 crore which included Rs 4,614.21 crore from the BSE cash segment and Rs 13,089.47 crore from the NSE cash segment and the balance of Rs 59,143 crore from the NSE futures.

 Domestic equities market surged to a fresh 25-month high in early afternoon trade, while stocks held firm in afternoon trade and extended gains in mid-afternoon trade to hit fresh 25-month highs. Buying frenzy in index pivotals in late trade helped indices register fresh multi-month highs later.  The market breadth was strong. Analysts maintain that stock specific action may rule the roost in the near term based on fourth quarter fiscal year  2010 results, which will trickle out from April 15 onwards.

Some Asian markets zoomed to 19-month highs inMonday’s trade buoyed by an upbeat US job data, while US markets too had settled at 18-month highs on Thursday, 1 April 2010.

Key benchmark indices in Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Singapore were up by between 0.09 to 2.02 per cent, while markets in Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were shut for holidays.   At the same time, European equity markets too were closed on April 5, 2010 for a holiday.