BOMBAY, 11 January 2004 — The Indian stock markets coninued on their upward journeys and once again made history by taking the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex where it had never been before. This has been a week of major happenings for the Indian corporate world and naturally then for the Indian stock exchanges too. The biggest surprise was the mini-budget presented by the Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Thursday. Yet, with election dates about to be announced soon, this budget is more of an attempt to collect more votes. The sops announced brought a huge ear-to-ear smile to the face of the Indian corporate world.
On Thursday, the Sensex rose by 151.52 points. Apart from the market friendly mini-budget, the market was also exuberant after the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) approved the introduction of margin trading and securities lending from Feb.1, 2004. SEBI also cut the derivatives contract size from the current Rs.2 lakhs.
On Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised its estimate for economic growth in the current fiscal to 7 percent with an upward bias, from 6.5 percent to 7.0 percent earlier.
Incidentally, India’s GDP grew 8.4 percent in the July-September 2003 quarter. Consequently, the BSE ended the day 13.38 points higher at 5,957.02.
Compared to this, the markets saw some amount of profit booking on Monday and Tuesday. Massive across-the-board selling dragged the market sharply lower on Tuesday, closing the day 95.36 points lower at 5,943.64. On Monday also the markets saw selling throughout the day but selective buying in select heavyweights helped the Sensex end the day 12.41 points higher at 6,039.
On Friday, the BSE ended the week just 11.05 points higher at 6,119.59.
Gold was at Rs. 6,270- per 10 gms and silver was at Rs. 9,800/- per Kg.
US dollar was at Rs.46.05, pound sterling at Rs.84.50, euro at Rs.58.85, UAE dirham at Rs.12.36, Kuwaiti dinar at Rs.154.04, Bahraini dinar at Rs.120.47, Saudi riyal at Rs.12.11, Qatari riyal at Rs.12.47 and Omani riyal at Rs.117.97.
