By IANS
Mumbai : With tech stocks catching investors’ fancy and the overall mood upbeat on global developments, a key Indian share market index breached the 17,000-point mark for the first time during intra-day trading Wednesday.
Amid heavy purchases by foreign funds, the 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) shot up to 17,019.44 points in the early hours of trading – the highest ever level for the index.
As trading progressed Wednesday, the barometer index then came in the grips of some profit taking and fell to 16,978.82 points. It was a gain of 79.28 points, or 0.47 percent, over the previous day’s close at 16,899.54 points.
It took the key index just seven days to jump 1,000 points after breaching the 16,000-point milestone a week ago. Previously, it took 53 sessions for the Sensex to move from 15,000 to 16,000 and 147 days from 14,000 t0 15,000.
Satyam Computer, Wipro, ICICI Bank, Infosys Technologies and Housing Development Finance Corp were among the main gainers within the basket of 30 Sensex shares, while Reliance Energy, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank were in the red.
“The Reserve Bank of India’s announcement yesterday that domestic mutual funds can now invest up to $5 million overseas, against $4 million earlier, lifted the mood today,” said an analyst with a leading brokerage here.
He was referring to the decision conveyed after trading hours Tuesday where the central bank allowed Indian companies to invest up to 400 percent of their net worth in joint ventures and subsidiaries abroad without prior approval.
“This should help in easing the pressures on the Indian rupee and may even provide some cushion to the central bank to ease interest rates. The markets have reacted positively to the development,” the analyst added.