MUMBAI: Snapping its three-day losing spree, the benchmark Sensex on Monday regained the vital 10,000 level on goody buying support in IT and banking stocks, though a cut in short-term lending rate by RBI did not exactly trigger a selling spree as was widely expected.
After breaching the crucial 10,000 market in the opening trade itself, the bellwether index on the Bombay Stock Exchange settled the day at 10,223.09, a rise of 247.74 points, or 2.48 per cent, over its previous close.
The selling pressure of the last three days saw Sensex losing a hefty 1,508 points, or 13.0 per cent, and it even plunged to below 10,000 level on Friday.
The 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also gained 48.45 points or 1.58 per cent to close at 3,122.80.
Marketmen attributed early rise to firm trends in Asian and European bourses.
They said the bellwether index even touched a high of 10,538.05 points but plunged to day's low of 10,023.28 soon after RBI's rate cut. Brokers said hectic buying by domestic institutional investors was alternated by profit selling, leading to a significant fall in Sensex.
Brokers said the market welcomed the central bank's move to reduce short-term lending (repo) which is expected to lead to cheaper credit and result in the overall growth of the industry.
After injecting Rs 1.45 lakh crore in the banking system to improve liquidity, the apex bank in a surprise move this noon, just days ahead of its mid-term monetary review, slashed the short-term repo rate--the rate at which banks borrow from RBI -- to eight per cent with immediate effect.
Elsewhere, Asian indices ended up by about 2.0 per cent to 5.0 per cent while European markets were up by about 2.0 per cent in their morning trading.
IT sector was on Monday's star performer with the sectoral index climbing up 8.05 per cent. TCS rose by 9.47 per cent to emerge as the biggest gainer among the Sensex shares. Wipro was up 8.95 per cent, Satyam Computer 8.67 per cent, Infosys
Tech 7.92 per cent and Tech Mahindra by 7.39 per cent.
Banking index also closed higher by an impressive 2.69 per cent. HDFC Bank was up 5.94 per cent, while ICICI Bank was 4.95 per cent higher.
FMCG and healthcare indices also closed up by 2.08 per cent and 1.60 per cent respectively.
Among Sensex scrips, Bharti Airtel, ITC Maruti Suzuki and SBI also closed higher in the region of 2-4 per cent. RIL, heaviest among them all, was up by 1.23 per cent.
However, BHEL tumbled by 8.24 per cent, Grasim by 7.96 per cent, DLF 6.40 per cent, ACC by 6.13 per cent and Mah & Mah by 5.39 per cent.
The mid-cap and small-cap segments, however, were under pressure in view of selling by foreign funds. The mid-cap index dropped by 1.09 per cent and the small-cap index by 1.32 per cent.
The market breadth, however, was negative due to losses in the mid-cap and small-cap shares. 1,643 stocks registered losses while 920 others finished with gains.
The trading volume was very low at Rs 3,697.57 crore. REL Capital clocked the highest turnover of Rs 290.35 crore followed by RIL (Rs 274.99 crore), SBI (Rs 183.72 crore), Axis Bank (Rs 175.53 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 137.28 crore).
