Sensex hits 15,000

The benchmark BSE 30-share Sensex pierced the psychologically important 15,000 level at about 13:20 IST today, 6 July 2007.

At 13:29 IST, the Sensex was up 101 points to 14,963. It struck a record high of 15,007.22 at 13:21 IST

It has taken seven months for the Sensex to move from 14,000 to 15,000. The index had first hit 14,000 on 5 December 2006. In contrast, it had taken just 26 trading sessions for the Sensex to reach the 14,000 level after it had hit the 13,000-mark on 30 October 2006.

On BSE, a deal took place in State Bank of India (SBI) at Rs 1,760. This is way above the ruling market price of Rs 1,570. And the quantity executed at that price was not minuscule: 16,762 shares changed hands in the stock at the price.

The deal partly helped the Sensex to achieve the 15,000 level, though the deal alone did not play a role as most of the Sensex constituents were firm today. Twenty-five of the 30 Sensex stocks were in the positive zone. Further, most of the sectoral and niche indices on BSE were in the green.

India's wholesale price index rose 4.13% in the 12 months to 23 June 2007, higher than the previous week's increase of 4.03% due to a rise in some food and mineral prices, government data released noon today, 6 July 2007, showed.

Two of the three major European markets --- London and France ---were in the green, whereas the German market edged lower.

Asian markets had recouped early losses and most were trading in the positive zone. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Koera and Taiwan were up by between 0.2% to 1%.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 3,444 crore compared with a turnover of Rs 2,547 crore at about 12:30 IST.

Buying was conspicuous in IT and telecom stocks. Satyam Computer rose 3.4% to Rs 480, TCS 2.8% to Rs 1141, Wipro 1.8% to Rs 513.50, and Infosys 1.7% to Rs 1949.

Among telecom stocks, Bharti Airtel rose 2% to Rs 871 and Reliance Communications 1.9% to Rs 555.75.

The market breadth was strong: 1,678 shares rose on BSE as against 891 that declined, while 86 were unchanged.