Sensex Touches 21000

In a volatile trading, the benchmark BSE Sensex on Thursday crossed the 21000-mark for the first time in intra-day (early trades) but closed below that mark with a gain of 60.68 points. However, mid-cap and small-cap stocks closed in the red after performing well in the last few weeks.
Though metal stocks plunged, oil and gas and frontline fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks performed well. While the index heavy weight Reliance Industries led the rally, ICICI Bank and ITC too contributed to the gain in the benchmark index.
The Sensex touched the 21000-mark in the opening trade and it took 49 days to cover the 1000-point journey from 20000 to 21000. Interestingly, in the current 1000-point journey, the BSE mid-cap index gained 28 per cent and the small-cap index 41 per cent.
The Sensex closed up 60.68 points at 20873.33 and the 50-share Nifty 8.75 points at 6287.85. The mid-cap index closed down by 285.16 points or 2.82 per cent at 9817.07 and the small-cap index by 459.06 points or 3.28 per cent at 13516.13. (Dated: 9 Jan 2008 Leeds Uk)