Sensex tops 67,000 for first time, even profit-booking's no dampener

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

equity benchmarks hit fresh all-time highs on Tuesday, extending their record-breaking run to the fourth straight day, on the back of persistent foreign institutional buying. The Sensex briefly surpassed 67,000 and Nifty momentarily crossed 19,800 in a choppy session as gains in index heavyweights RIL and IT services companies offset selling in the broader markets. The Sensex closed at a record 66,795, up 205.21 points, or 0.31%, from the previous record-high closing of 66,589.

The index topped 67,007 in the late morning trade before paring some of its gains. The Nifty, too, made a fresh all-time closing high of 19,749, up 37.80 points or 0.19%. It scaled a new high of 19,819, beating Monday's record of 19,731.

«Our markets are showing signs of strength, while investors are booking profit that is leading to mild intra-day correction instead of a closing correction,» said Siddarth Bhamre, research head, Religare Broking. Bhamre remains bullish and advises clients to follow the positive trend as liquidity, especially foreign money, remains strong. «One should not be discouraged by purely looking at the valuations.

There is this argument that valuations are premium but there are hardly any investment destinations in the world that offer the stability and growth momentum that India does,» he said. On Tuesday, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pumped in ₹2,115.84 crore in the cash segment, according to provisional data from the stock exchanges. FPIs extended their string of stock purchases for the fourth straight day, and have cumulatively infused over ₹80,000 crore in the last four months, resulting in a 17% rally in the benchmark indices.