The bull rally in Indian markets is continuing. The sustained rise in select heavyweights helped the benchmark Sensex to end with a small gain on Monday, even as most stocks declined in a volatile trading session.However, volatility continued. After moving in an intra-day range of 113.45 points, the 30-share BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex) closed 12.41 points higher at 6,039, its best close ever. The NSE S&P CNX Nifty index also gained 8.95 points to end at 1,955.Sensex touched a high of 6,078.11 and a low of 5,964.65 during intra-day trades. With this rise, the Sensex has now gained 200 points in the first three sessions of 2004.After a stretched rally of about 250 points or 4.3 per cent, Sensex is showing some signs of weariness at higher levels. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) directive to banks on Saturday to raise margins by 10 per cent to 50 per cent towards loans against shares, guarantees issued against brokers and IPO financing led to some volatility as select brokers and investors unloaded their long positions.However, most fund managers don’t expect the hike in the bank margin to puncture the rally in a big way.Top performers in the current rally are metals, automobiles and select textile companies, which finished the day with losses on account of profit-booking in afternoon trades.
