Mumbai: The benchmark Sensex today recovered about 46 points to end near record highs powered by gains in bluechips, led by banking, consumer durables and auto stocks, on buying by foreign funds and a drop in global oil prices. The 30-share index after opening firm at 26,322.66, improved to touch day's high of 26,464.80 before settling with net gain of 45.82 points, or 0.17 per cent, at 26,360.11.
Intra day, it had slipped to a low of 26,262.52 due to selling in metal, realty, IT and power scrips. Yesterday, Sensex shed over 106 points on profit-booking.
It touched record close level of 26,420.67 on August 19. “Profit booking and consolidation continued at higher levels. Global cues were mixed, however, lower crude oil prices boosted overall market sentiment,” said Nidhi Saraswat, Senior Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio.
The 50-share NSE Nifty recovered 15.80 points, or 0.20 per cent, to close at 7,891.10 after shuttling between 7,919.65 and 7,855.95. It had shed 22.20 points yesterday. The recovery in Sensex and Nifty was supported by gains in SBI that climbed 2.27 per cent. Bajaj Auto surged over 3 per cent and M&M rose 1.34 per cent among 15 Sensex gainers.
Other bluechip gainers which helped indices to trade in positive zone were Axis Bank, GAIL, HDFC Bank, HeroMoto Corp, Larsen and Toubro, ITC Ltd, ONGC and Sun Pharma. Stocks of steel companies, however, met with selling pressure after government yesterday gave nod to increasing royalty rates on minerals. Soft data from China, the biggest consumer of metals, also took a toll, brokers said.
Among steel shares, Tata Steel fell 1.62 per cent, Sesa Sterlite was down 1.73 per cent and SAIL dipped 2.95 per cent. In oil markets, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for October delivery was down 27 cents at USD 93.18 while Brent for October eased 26 cents to USD 102.02 in afternoon trade. Global stocks trend was mixed. European markeets opened higher while Asian markets mostly fell.
Sectorwise, the BSE Consumer Durables gained the most by surging 3.78 per cent, followed by Bankex 1.18 per cent, Auto index 0.79 per cent, PSU index 0.68 per cent, Oil and gas index 0.51 per cent and Capital goods index 0.65 per cent. On the other hand, BSE Realty fell 1.91 percent, followed by BSE Metal (1.35 per cent) and Power (0.99 percent).
Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors bought shares worth a net Rs 251.36 crore yesterday.
