Mumbai: The BSE benchmark Sensex on Tuesday breached the 20,000-mark in the opening trade after two years on sustained buying by funds, driven by better-than-expected third quarter earnings by Tata Consultancy Services amid mixed Asian cues.
The 30-share index, however, immediately slipped to 19,938.01 on profit-booking, still up by 31.60 points, or 0.16 percent, from yesterday's close.
It touched a high of 20,007.09 by gaining over 100 points in opening trade, led by gains in IT, tech and consumer durables sector stocks.
Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty inched up by 3.35 points, or 0.06 percent, to 6,027.40.
Brokers said sustained buying by funds and retail investors after country's largest software exporter TCS posted 26.7 percent jump in net profit for the October- December quarter buoyed the trading sentiment here.
Stocks of TCS shot up by 3 percent to Rs 1,374.35, while Wipro gained 0.67 percent to Rs 420.70.
Besides, a mixed trend in the Asian region also influenced the sentiment, they said.
Meanwhile in the Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.26 percent, while Japan's Nikkei was up 1.26 percent today. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.14 percent higher in yesterday's trade.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 15, 2013, 09:43