Sensex dusts off early sharp losses, ends up 207 points

In a remarkable turnaround from the early steep fall, the benchmark Sensex bounced back and completed its five-day winning streak with a gain of a whopping 207.47 points to close at nearly a six-month high of 10,742.34 despite sluggish overseas markets.

Taking a cue from the weak global markets, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer resumed sharply lower and was down nearly 363 points or 3.45% in early trade.

But buying across the board helped the Sensex to spring back by over 570 points from the day's low of 10,171.91 to close at 10,742.34, a rise of 1.97% over its previous close. This is a level not seen since October 15, 2008, when the index ended at 10,809.12.

A technical research report by the US-based Elliot Wave International has said that at a time when developed markets across the world are in a bearish phase, the Sensex may continue to advance over the next 15 years and is likely to breach its all-time high of 21,000.

In a straight five-session rally, the bellwether index notched up a total of 1,174.20 points or 12.27%.

The broad-based 50-issue Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also recovered its initial losses and ended sharply up 86.35 points or 2.65% to 3,342.95.

Sustained buying by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), the main market mover, mainly led the recovery. The FIIs pumped in Rs196.74 crore on April 6 as per provisional data while domestic funds pulled out Rs81.76 crore on the same day.

Asian indices ended lower between 1.02% and 3.76% following the steep fall on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped by 2.34% and 2.81%, respectively.

Realty, consumer-durable, and FMCG counters were in keen demand. Besides Bankex, all other sectoral indices ended in the green with a gain of between 1.31 and 4.74%.

Small-cap and mid-cap counters also attracted good buying support from retail investors and outperformed the Sensex.

In the Sensex pack, Jaiprakash Associates spurted by 8.71%, NTPC by 6.70%, Tata Motors by 6.29%, HUL by 6.06%, ITC by 5.15%, L&T by 4.71%, Wipro by 4.69%, TCS by 4.35%, Sun Pharma by 4.20% and RIL by 3.10%.

M&M declined by 3.54%, Hindalco by 2.92%, REL Com by 2.18% and HDFC Bank by 1.61%.

The total market depth was highly positive as 2,021 counters ended with gains and 468 with losses on the BSE. The total trading volume shot up to Rs5,437.91 crore, indicating more retail participation, from Rs4,690.16 crore on Monday. RIL topped the list of highest-traded securities with a turnover of Rs346.19 crore.