The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex closed Samvat 2060 at 5954.34, up 25.2 per cent (1,200 points) over the Samvat 2059 close of 4757.37. This is the second year in a row the Sensex has increased by over 1,000 points. The index had registered its biggest gain (Samvat to Samvat) in 2059, when it rose 1,800 points.

A large part of the credit for the rise in the Sensex this year goes to foreign institutional investors. FIIs made net purchases of Rs 38,759 crore (Rs 387.59 billion) in Indian equities between Samvat 2059 and 2060.

In comparison, local mutual funds trailed with net purchases of Rs 1,583 crore (Rs 15.83 billion).

With FIIs showing a huge appetite for Indian scrips, the market capitalisation of traded stocks increased to Rs 1,450,000 crore (Rs 14500 billion), up from Rs 1,300,000 crore (Rs 13000 billion) at the end of Samvat 2059.

This was the Samvat year of commodity stocks, with the steel, ferro alloys, chemicals, sugar, oils, sponge iron sectors recording over 100 per cent gain each.

The transmission tower, construction, mining, oil drilling, textile machinery, breweries and automobile ancillaries sectors staged strong recovery, posting increases of over 100 per cent each in the past year.

Samvat 2060 saw almost 88 per cent of the actively traded stocks ending up at the end of the year. Of this, 16 stocks went up over 1,000 per cent, each.

Another 43 appreciated 501-1,000 per cent, 725 between 101 and 500 per cent, 448 between 51 and 100 per cent and 647 stocks below 50 per cent.

In percentage terms, the small cap company, Choksi Labs, tops the list of gainers, with an unbeatable 4,316 per cent rise in its share price from Rs 1.18 on October 25, 2003, to Rs 52.10 on November 11, 2004.