Markets Climb New Peaks

Rex Mathew
08 March 2005

It is getting a bit unexciting now. Fifth straight day of gains, fourth straight day of new all-time highs and the sensex closing above 6900 for the first time ever. Even history will lose relevance if we keep re-writing it every day. Sensex closed at 6915, up 36 points and the Nifty at 2169, a gain of 9 points. The Nifty futures discount to the spot index narrowed to 6 points.

Crude closed marginally lower on news that OPEC may not cut production. US markets were mixed with NASDAQ rallying and Dow closing lower. Tech stocks on NASDAQ found all round buying as robust economy is expected to push up demand for technology products. Indian ADR's had a mixed day. HDFC Bank was the major gainer with gains of 2.5 per cent. Telecom stocks VSNL and MTNL as well as IT majors managed gains while Tata Motors and Dr. Reddy's closed lower. ICICI Bank and Infosys closed marginally lower.

IMF expects good days ahead for the world economy with growth rates of 4.3 per cent. It predicts a weaker US dollar and increasing currency appreciation risks for Europe and Japan. The IMF expects the US economy to post a healthy growth rate of 3.7 per cent.

Investment bank JP Morgan revised its year end sensex target to 8000 post budget from 7000 earlier. JP Morgan predicts an overall re-rating for the Indian market from additional domestic flows into the market. IT, banking, petrochemicals and infrastructure companies are the most attractive sectors as per the bank.

Aluminium majors Nalco and Hindalco were major gainers with the former gaining more than 8 per cent on short covering in the futures market.

Pharma majors Ranbaxy, Cipla and Dr Reddy's, who have been rank under-performers over the last year rallied in after noon trades. All the three gained more than 3 per cent each.