The markets made some historic moves today breaking the old records and made some new ones. It was truly the biggest day for Indian capital markets. The benchmark indices have outperformed the broader markets. After a dull start victory came in with Sensex hitting the 18,000 mark today. This came in as a surprise after the news that UPA, Left to meet again on US Nuke Deal on October 22. 

It was absolute heady for the bulls making biggest intra day gains. Despite all the political turbulence which markets seem to be ignoring it and making new records by not just touching new highs but has registered some record gains on record high turnover.

Sensex logged biggest intra day absolute gains ever. Sensex was up nearly 800 points and Nifty surged over 250 points. Sensex saw gains of 1000 points from the day's low with the backdrop of political uncertainty.

Sensex not only hit the 18,000 mark but was well above that level as the day moved ahead. The cushion was of 300 points and the Sensex pushed towards 18,300. Nifty saw a surge of 350 points from the day's low moving towards 5350 mark. 20-25 points premium was seen in Nifty futures. All the BSE sector indices ended in green up over 2%.

In the jourmey from17K to 18K, IT stock which were the laggards have contibuted significantly. Infosys, Satyam, Wipro ad TCS were among the top contributors followed by capital good stocks like L&T and BHEL and oil & gas stocks, Reliance leading the pack.

18,000 JOURNEY

• SENSEX TAKES 8 DAYS TO MOVE FROM 17,000 TO 18,000
• CONTRIBUTION - RIL 185 PTS, INFOSYS 152 PTS, L&T 103 PTS
• CONTRIBUTION - REL 104 PTS, TATA STEEL 42 PTS, REL COMM 93 PTS
• CONTRIBUTION - BHARTI 69 PTS, BHEL 59 PTS, NTPC 39 PTS, SATYAM 33 PTS
• TOP 5 STOCKS HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO 60% OF RALLY FROM 17,000 TO 18,000
• FIIs HAVE INVESTED $3.54 BN IN CASH MARKET

Strong buying was seen in telecom, metal, realty, IT, cap goods, oil & gas and auto stocks.

Top gainers on the Nifty were Tata Power, Reliance Energy, Reliance Communication, Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, HCL Tech and HDFC.

Sensex was up 788.85 points or 4.51% at 18280.24, and the Nifty up 242.15 points or 4.76% at 5327.25.

About 1921 shares have advanced, 1045 shares declined, and 75 shares are unchanged.

The BSE Small Cap Index closed at 8,976.76 up 2%.

The BSE Midcap Index ended at 7,398.70 up 2.6%.

The BSE FMCG Index closed at 2,148.05 up 2.8%.  Bata India, United Spirits up 8% each followed by  ITC, Colgate.

The BSE Metal Index closed at 14,080.93 up 4%.  Tata Steel, SAIL, Sesa Goa, Sterlite Ind, Hindalco, Shree Precoated were among the gainers.

The BSE Capital Goods Index was up 3% at 15,934.44. Thermax, Triveni Engg, Gammon India up over 8% each, Areva T&D, Jyoti Structure, L&T, Reliance Infra up over 5% each.

The BSE Auto Index closed at 5,428.34 up 3%. Maruti, Ashok Leyland, Tube Investments, Apollo Tyres, Hind Motors, Cummins, Escorts were among the gainers.

The BSE IT Index closed at 4,890.18 up 2.5%.  Mphasis, Wipro, Patni Computer, HCL Tech, Satyam ended higher.

The BSE Bankex was up 3% at 9,273.41. IOB, Kotak Mahindra, Karnataka Bank, Axis Bank, SBI,  HDFC Bank, Bank of Baroda closed higher.

The BSE Oil and Gas Index closed at 10,435.17 up 7%. Reliance Natura, Reliance, Reliance Petro, GAIL, Petronet LNG closed in green.

The NSE cash turnover was at Rs 18429.93 crore and the NSE F&O turnover was at Rs 82362.26 crore. The BSE cash turnover was Rs 7790.80 crore. Total market wide turnover was at Rs 108583 crore.

What do experts say:

Sonam Udasi, Head of Research at Prime Securities though inspite of the euphoria is a little grounded in her outlook. She said, "One cannot rule out volatility in this market, there are concerns and political concern is a big one. Overall we will continue this momentum as long as the economy keeps chugging along and one can have hiccups on political front and otherwise."

She continues, "I think if the government really does fall, I am sure we will see some red, but that said as long as India Inc keeps growing, I do not think that is a big issue; point to point one will make records, one will make money."

Ashwini Agarwal of Demeter Advisors also thinks that fundamentally things are running ahead of themselves and the reality is that earnings growth rates are slowing down and there is the risk of political upheaval.

He said, "I don’t know what happens in the next 3-6 months, because we are in a global liquidity environment which can rise or fade for a host of reasons, which I cannot forecast or imagine. But I do see a few risks out there that are not properly priced in, but at the same time the world at large seems to be in a very benign mood right now and if that benign mood continues, you could see fairly higher prices."

While, Mark Stevenson, Head-Technical Research at CLSA doing some technical analysis, figures that the immediate target for he Sensex should be around 19,500-19,800. He said, "For Sensex the immediate target would be round about the 19,500-19,800 level as I mentioned earlier is round about 8% to 10% above current levels and for the Nifty about 5,600-5,650 levels, which again is 8% higher."

N Jayakumar, CEO of Prime Securities sums it up well when he says, "I think the more important day than today was actually yesterday when markets with closed at 17,400 odds even with elections virtually being called by everyone. This indicates to me a range at which the markets are comfortable despite elections on the horizon. Obviously, that is an extremely strong case to suggest that the bull market will continue to surprise all of us."

Sensex: Road to 18 K

9-10K: 49 days
10-11K: 30 days
11-12K: 20 days
12-13K: 136 days
13-14K: 27 days
14-15K: 144 days
15-16k: 53 days
16k-17k: 6 days
17k-18k: 8 days

Sensex Chronology

18,000- October 9, 2007
17,000 - Sep 26, 2007
16, 000 - Sep 19, 2007
15,000 - July 6, 07: 15000
14,000 - Dec 5, 2006
13,000 - Oct 30, 2006
12,000 - Apr 20, 2006
11,000 - Mar 21, 2006
10,000 - Feb 6, 2006
9,000 - Nov 28, 2005
8,000 - Sep 8, 2005
7,000 - June 20t, 2005
6,000 - Feb 11, 2000
5,000 - Oct 8, 1999

FLOWS: