Diwali comes to market early, Sensex zooms 428 pts to new peak:

MUMBAI: Diwali sparkles came to stock markets a day early today as the BSE benchmark Sensex closed at an all-time high of 20,893.57 points by gaining almost 428 points on robust buying of blue chips like RIL, SBI and HDFC.

This leaves just 107 points to go for the Sensex to breach the landmark 21,000 points level. The Sensex today closed at 20,893.57 points, supassing the previous record of 20,873.33 achieved on January 8, 2008.

During the session, the index today touched an intra-day high of 20,917.03 points.

Another benchmark index, the NSE Nifty, closed at 6,281.80 points, just six points shy of its record close at 6,287.85 on January 8, 2008.

Following today's rally, the Sensex is just 313 points away from its all-time intra-day peak of 21,206.77 points, scaled on January 10, 2008. Equity analysts were enthusiastic the Sensex will surpass this level tomorrow during Muhurat trading.

Marketmen said the investor sentiment is upbeat after state-run Coal India's stellar debut on the domestic bourses today and the US Federal Reserve's announcement of a new stimulus package for the American economy.

"Markets across the globe gained on account of the second round of quantitative easing by the US. Firm listing of Coal India and a fall in weekly food inflation further boosted the investment sentiment," Global Securities Research Head (Retail) Saurabh Jain said.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries zoomed nearly 3 per cent to close at Rs 1,097.

Coal India made a big-bang debut today and closed nearly 40 per cent higher than its IPO issue price of Rs 245 per share.

CIL shares gained to Rs 342.35 on the BSE during today's session, making the coal miner India's fourth-most valued Indian entity with a total market cap of Rs 2.16 lakh crore.

Other heavyweights scrips also saw smart buying, with SBI climbing 3.15 per cent, HDFC 3.11 per cent and ICICI Bank 1.7 per cent.

Jumping by 3.77 per cent, Tata Motors was the biggest gainer on the Sensex. Hindalco jumped 3.21 per cent, M&M 2.46 per cent and ONGC 2 per cent.

Barring Hero Honda and Bharti Airtel, all the Sensex stocks ended with gains. Hero Honda lost 1.31 per cent and Bharti Airtel 0.27 per cent.

All 13 sectoral indices on the BSE, except for consumer durables, ended with gains, with oil & gas and metal the major beneficiaries. 
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Source:ET