Sensex surges 523 pts on heavy buying

Continuing its upward march, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Friday rose by 523 points on heavy buying supported by cooling crude prices and lower than expected inflation figures released by the government on Thursday.

The 30-share BSE index, which had gained 536 points on Thursday, shot up by another 523.55 points to close at 13,635.40 points, after touching the high of 13,684.27 on brisk buying in heavy-weight stocks led by bank, realty and capital goods sectors.

A major push to the upsurge was extended by banking sector by gaining the most 461.29 points at 6,188.89, followed by capital goods sector by 384.50 points at 11,146.51.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange's index Nifty also soared to cross 4,000 level and settled at 4,092.25 points, a gain of 145.05 points over the previous close. It touched the day's high of 4,110.55 and a low of 3926.30 points.

Marketmen said that a fall in crude oil prices partly reduced chances of further hike in inflation and boosted demand for investment in stocks of select categories.

Crude oil prices in global markets have fallen by over $16 to below $130 a barrel level in the last three days.

They said inflation, which rose marginally to 11.91 per cent for the week ended July 5, was below the market expectations of over 12 per cent.