Sensex gains 225 pts

MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Wednesday gained 225 points on the back of rally in Infosys, TCS and Tata Steel.
    
Metal stocks rallied sharply on overnight firm advices from London Metal Exchange, while IT shares attracted good buying support following sustained weakness in the rupee that touched a new 13-month low of 42.44/45 on Wednesday.
    
The 30-share Sensex initially touched low of 16,626.35 on some weakness in Asian markets Wednesday morning. But, firm opening in European markets led the recovery and it regained the
17,000 mark to touch high of 17,014.94 before ending the day at 16,978.35, a rise of 225.49 points or 1.35 per cent over previous close of 16,752.86.
    
On Tuesday, the index was down by over 108 points.
    
Metal Index gained the most by 687.30 points, or 4.36 per cent. at 16,435.18. It was followed by IT Index that rose by 162.22 points, or 3.80 per cent, at 4,427.36. Among major
gainers were TCS, which flared up by 7.09 per cent, Infosys Tech by 4.53 per cent and Tata Steel by 4.12 per cent.
    
The S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also recouped by 53.95 points or 1.09 per cent to finish at 5,011.75.
    
European markets, which opened after Asian markets, exhibited favorable trend, while most Asian indices rebounded from early weakness and ended in green.
    
Market players were still concerned over the steep slowdown in industrial output and rising inflation as the global crude oil prices remained near USD 126 a barrel after striking a new peak of USD 126.98 a barrel in New York on Tuesday.

Foreign Institutional Investors, after three days of sell-off, turned positive and they picked up shares worth Rs 73.93 crore on Tuesday as per provisional data.
    
Among other gainers were Hindalco that rose 6.86 per cent, Maruti 3.51 per cent, Bharti Airtel 3.31 per cent, REL 3.13 per cent, HDFC 2.74 per cent, Jaipra Asso 2.57 per cent, Rel Com 2.50 per cent and Ranbaxy 2.09 per cent.
    
However, ONGC declined by 5.85 per cent, ACC by 2.30 per cent, ACL by 1.93 per cent, M&M by 1.58 per cent, HDFC Bank by 1.16 per cent, NTPC by 1.14 per cent and HUL by 1.04 per cent.
    
The BSE-100 index spurted by 116.84 points to 8,967.38 from previous close of 8,850.54.
    
The BSE-200 and the Dollex-200 were quoted better at 2,104.70 and 824.49 at close from last close of 2,078.94 and 823.12 previously.
    
The BSE-500 index also rose by 75.65 points to 6,715.40 from 6,639.75 and the Dollex-30 also edged to 3,279.81 from 3,270.89.
    
The market breadth remained positive as 1,425 stocks ended with gains while 1,239 finished lost.
    
Trading volume declined to Rs 6,219.35 crore from Rs 6,623.42 crore on Tuesday.
    
Aishwarya Te remained the top traded share with highest turnover of Rs 929.80 crore, followed by RPL (Rs 238.28 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 168.58 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 167.74 crore) and IDEA Cell (Rs 161.69 crore).