Markets recoup, Sensex ends up by 255 pts

MUMBAI: The markets shrugged off the impact of fuel price hike of Wednesday, with the the benchmark Sensex gaining nearly 255 points to snap the three-day long losing spree on the back of strong European trends.
    
The 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange barometer ended the day at 15,769.72, a gain of 254.93 points, or 1.64 per cent, over Wednesday's close.
     
The key index moved between 15,814.80 and 15,314.02 points, revealing a wide gap of 500 points which reflected the high volatility in trade today. At the lowest level, it was down by nearly 201 points before recovering smartly on good buying at lower levels.
    
The Sensex had lost over 900 points in past three trading sessions. It lost over 440 points yesterday alone on fears of further inflationary pressure after the government announced a hike in fuel prices.
    
The 50-issue Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also recovered by 91.35 points to 4,676.95 from its previous close.
    
Marketmen said investors have quickly learnt to live with the realty of higher fuel prices though the hike was higher than expected. They further said the economic growth of above 8 per cent mainly hold the key.
    
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued their selling spree and sold shares worth Rs 1,198.90 crore on Wednesday, while domestic funds were net buyers to the tune of Rs 419.81 crore on the same day, as per provisional figures.
    
IT counters attracted heavy buying interest due to fall in the rupee value while consumer durable and realty shares bore the brunt of selling on concerns over possibility of hike in interest rates by the apex bank to stem the inflation.
    
Asian indices ended narrowly mixed today while European markets showed firm trend early morning.
    
The Sensex surged riding on the back of gains metal, IT and bank stocks. Reflecting rally in IT counters, the sectorial BSE-IT index spurted by 220.09 points, or 5.01 per cent, to 4,617.44 while BSE-CD plunged by 57.99 points or 1.42 per cent to 4,031.72.
    
However, realty sector index fell by 63.15 points at 6,326.05, consumer durable by 57.99 points at 4,031.72 and auto index by 3.58 points at 4,222.01.
    
From index pack, ONGC flared up by 7.46 per cent, Wipro by 6.25 per cent, Infosys Tech by 5.86 per cent, REL by 5.68 per cent, NTPC by 5.57 per cent, Satyam Computer by 5.47 per cent.
    
Realty major DLF dropped by 3.00 per cent, RIL by 2.58 per cent, Tata Motors by 1.82 per cent, ACL by 1.89 per cent, BHEL by 1.80 per cent and L&T by 1.60 per cent.
    
Despite gain in Senxes, market breadth remained negative as 1,397 counters ended with losses while 1,240 that ended with gains.
    
The trading volume was high but relatively down at Rs 6,172.82 crore from Rs 6,461.60 crore on Wednesday. RIL topped the list of highest securities with a turnover of Rs 418.92 crore followed by Anus Lab (Rs 353.60 crore), Reliance Capital
(Rs 266.37 crore), Gokul Refoils and Solvent (Rs 210.66 crore) and ONGC (Rs 204.37 crore).
       
The broader BSE-100 index recouped by 138.85 points or 1.70 per cent to 8,306.31 from 8,167.46 previously.
       
The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were also quoted higher at 1,946.33 and 755.34 at close compared to their previous close of 1,916.60 and 746.24 respectively. The BSE-500 Index hardened by 81.23 points to 6,169.16 from its last close of 6,087.93 and the Dollex-30 ended up at 3,017.93 from 2,978.86 previously.