Sensex crosses 17K-mark in fastest rally

The BSE benchmark Sensex zoomed past 17K-mark early this morning to 17,025.07 points for the first time in fastest-ever 1,000-point rally, on heavy buying across IT counters. IT shares, which were badly battered in last few months as rupee rose beyond 40-level against the US dollar, attracted renewed buying support and helped the Sensex to cross another milestone.
The BSE 30-share barometer touched a new lifetime peak of 17,025.07 in early trade, up by 125.53 points over yesterday's close of 16,899.54.

The journey from 16,000 points to 17,000 points was covered in the shortest span of six days. However, it later parted gains and was quoted at 16,969.16 at 1135 hrs. The broad-based S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also struck an all-time intra-day high of 4,977.90 before being quoted at 4,958.30 at 11 35 hrs, from previous close of 4,938.85, a rise o f 19.45 points.

Metal counters were also in demand while realty shares recovered some of their overnight losses on renewed buying. Hectic shortcovering ahead of the expiry of September series tomorrow too helped the index rise.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued their buying spree and injected about Rs 7,818 crore, including provisional figure of Rs 1,496.14 crore of Tuesday, since September 19, the day on which the US Fed cut interest rate.

Key shares such as Reliance Communications, Satyam, Infosys, Tata Steel, Hindustan Unilever, SAIL, SBI and HDFC made notable gains in early trades.