Sensex hits record high at 30,793; 496 stocks cheaper than a vada pav, 8 pricier than Redmi Note 4

It is a bull run on the Dalal Street. The benchmark Sensex again hit an all-time high on Thursday after investors resorted to fresh buying after two days of declining trend.The present uptrend in the stock market should serve as manna from the heaven for the National Democratic Alliance government, for it comes at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is celebrating his three-year anniversary with much fanfare.[caption id="attachment_3481021" align="alignleft" width="380"] Reuters[/caption]In fact, the new record high comes just a day prior to the third anniversary on Friday (26 May), when the BJP is planning gala events across many cities. (The 2014 election results were declared on 16 May and Modi took over on 26 May.)For those who did not take time off to check the index levels today, here's are the details: The Sensex hit a record high of 30,793.43 intra-day and closed at 30,750.03, up 448.39 points or 1.48 percent. Investor wealth swelled Rs 1.67 lakh crore, with the BSE market capitalisation hitting Rs 124.24 lakh crore. As many as 1,862 shares advanced on the BSE and 827 shares declined. The top five Sensex gainers were L&T, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Infosys and GAIL India and biggest losers included Lupin, Dr Reddy's  and Cipla.Even as the Sensex is hitting record highs, there are a few stocks are still trading really cheap, below Rs 10 to be exact. These are called penny stocks.Here are a few interesting details about these stocks: As many as 496 stocks on the BSE are categorised as penny. That means 17.3 percent of the total stocks traded (2,829 as of 25 May) are still cheaper than a vada pav.Out of the 496, nearly 300 are trading below Rs 5. As many as 73 are priced below Re 1, 60 between Re 1 and Rs 2; 59 between Rs 2 and Rs 3; 61 between Rs 3 and Rs 4 and 46 between Rs 4 and Rs 5. There are around 200 stocks trading between Rs 5 and Rs 10.A sector-wise classification of these stocks shows that maximum number of penny stocks are in the finance sector (68 shares). This is followed by textiles (48), trading (46), IT software (34), steel (25) and 19 each from entertainment and realty sectors. Balance 237 stocks come from 52 other sectors. 

Top penny stock gainers
Company	Year ago price (Rs)	Current price (Rs)	% change
Facor Alloys	0.92	4.27	364.1
Cybermate Info.	1.14	3.69	223.7
Surat Textile	2.24	7.13	218.3
Genera Agri	2.30	6.94	201.7
Mega Corp.	0.19	0.54	184.2
Integ. Capital	1.38	3.90	182.6
GTL Infra.	1.87	5.05	170.1
S.A.L Steel	2.59	6.91	166.8
Century Extrus.	1.95	4.92	152.3
Satkar Finlease	2.67	6.27	134.8
Source: CapitalinePlus

 The cheapest stock among the lot is Birla Cotsyn - 7 paise. This is followed by Silicon Valley priced 9 paise and Cals Refineries at 12 paise.The market capitalisation of these 496 stocks ranges between Rs 35 lakh and Rs 2,560 crore.In the past one year, the Sensex gained close to 5,000 points or 20 percent. Over this time, the number of penny stocks reduced from 610 (or 22 percent of total traded 2,753 stocks) to 496 now.Two years back, the number of penny stocks was 643 (or 23 percent of 2,797 total traded stocks) and 3 years back it was 920 (or 30 percent of 3077 shares).In the past one year, the penny stock that gave the highest return was Facor Alloys -- 364 percent. Its share price moved up from 92 paise to Rs 4.27. Cybermate Infotek with 224 percent rise ranks second and Surat Textile rising 218 percent third.Though the returns looks lucrative in penny shares, the investors should be more cautious while trading in these, warn experts.The prominent companies trading below Rs 10 include JP Power Ventures (Rs 4.24), RattanIndia Power (Rs 7.66), GTL Infra (Rs 5.05), Unitech (Rs 5.41), Tata Tele Maharashtra (Rs 6.76), Lanco Infratech (Rs 2.83), GVK Power Infra (Rs 5.39), Gammon Infra (Rs 3.92) and IVRCL (Rs 4.48).In contrast to the penny shares, there are eight companies which are pricier than a Redmi Note 4, the popular budget smart phone from Xiaomi costing Rs 9,999. The highest priced stock is MRF trading at Rs 63,798 per share, pricier than the premium Samsung Galaxy S8, which costs Rs 57,000.This is followed by Eicher Motors (Rs 27,954), Bosch (Rs 23,406), Shree Cement (Rs 17,608), Page Industries (Rs 14,236), Polson (Rs 14,250), 3M India (Rs 13,025) and Honeywell Automation (Rs 10,981).