Markets greet millennium

MUMBAI, JANUARY 7: Pivotals generally remained bullish on the Bombay Stock exchange BSE last week on allround buying support.The markets...

MUMBAI, JANUARY 7: Pivotals generally remained bullish on the Bombay Stock exchange BSE last week on allround buying support.The markets greeted the new millennium with a good rally and selected cyclical stocks advanced further to finish with handsome gains.Several IT stocks which was bullish in the intial part of the week reacted sharply on profit taking following crash in these shares in the global markets.

Earlier on Monday share prices and indices soared to record highs as bulls hit the year 2000 running after a glitch-free millennium changeover. Sensex spurted by 369 points to a record 5,375 with a buying wave sweeping the market on the first trading day of the new year. The rise was largely fuelled by local speculators and retail investors. Software shares shone in the rising market with most shares frozen at the upper end of the eight percent circuit breaker limit.

On Tuesday bulls continue their buying in volatile trading.Buying was mostly in index-linked heavy-weights, while the broader market attracted profit-booking after Monday8217;s record gains. Sensex gained another 115.90 points, higher at 5,491.01 after hitting an all-time high of 5,533.98. The fresh foreign activity was attributed to the persistent rally in the Nasdaq composite index of the US that scaled a new peak of 4131.1.Infosys Technologies led the bull rally once again and jumped to a new record high.

However, the market crashed on Wednesday following the fall in Nasdaq pulls down Indian markets.The sharp fall in Nasdaq triggered a crash on Indian bourses and joined other world markets in the bear rally. The sensex crashed by 307 points at one stage during the session but at the end showed a whopping loss of 134 points, ending the two-day old dream run by bulls.

The market again recovered partially on Thursday and pivotals led by cyclical stocks rallied on emergence of buying support lifting the sensex partially up by about 65 points. The sentiment was also boosted by fresh purchases by foreign funds and hectic short covering.Several IT scrips, however, attracted profit-taking. Operators, who accumulated technology stocks during the past a few days, resorted to heavy unloading in the light of imposition of volatility margins by the exchange authorities. Operators centred their attention on economy stocks

On Friday shares end down, but off lows recovery helped by consumer goods and economy related shares while high flying software shares were laid low for third day in a row in reaction to sharp fall at the U.S. Technology laden Nasdaq exchange.The sensex last 7.05 points down at 5,414.48.