Indian share prices jumped 1.07 percent to a third consecutive record finish Monday on sustained foreign investor interest in the benchmark stocks, dealers said. They said blue chip telecommunications and automobile companies gained on optimism of continued economic growth for Asia's second fastest-growing economy.
The Sensex closed up 166.65 points to 15,732.2, coming off an intraday record of 15,773.37. "The markets continued to surge on strong liquidity. We could see choppy trends ahead of the expiry of the monthly futures contracts on Thursday," said Manoj Kakaiya, dealer with brokerage ULJK Securities.
Overseas funds have pumped 9.6 billion dollars into Indian equities so far this year, topping the 7.99 billion dollars invested in all of 2006, pushing gains on the Sensex to nearly 14 percent so far this year. Gainers led losers 1,333 to 1,302 on volume of 53.7 billion rupees (1.33 billion dollars).
Anglo-Dutch food giant Unilever's Indian arm Hindustan Unilever rose 9.75 rupees or 5.02 percent to 204 rupees, after the company said it would consider a buyback of shares. Hindustan Unilever said in a statement to the Mumbai stock exchange that its board would meet on July 29 to take a decision on the buyback. Bharat Heavy Electricals rose 117.4 rupees or 7.12 percent while Bajaj Auto rose 96.6 rupees or 4.15 percent to 2,423.55. Bharti Airtel rose 18 rupees or 1.95 percent to 940.95.