Mumbai, Oct 24: The BSE Sensex snapped two-session losing streak today and gained 154 points at 16,939.28 on value buying in blue-chips such as RIL and Infosys, ahead of RBI's monetary policy review and expiry of the monthly derivative contracts.
Asian cues were firm after the European leaders' meeting yesterday raised hopes that the euro-zone debt troubles may ease soon. However, there was some weakness in European stocks in late morning trade due to fall in preliminary composite purchasing managers index (PMI) for the euro-zone in October, lowest reading since July 2009.
Sensex erased nearly half of the 300 point intra-day gain on profit-booking towards the end of the trade. Besides, the total market breadth was negative as second-line stocks underperformed.
The BSE 30-share barometer opened sharply higher, up 225 points and touched a high of 17,104.88. But it settled at 16,939.28, up 153.64 points or 0.92 per cent. In last two trading sessions, it had plunged 300 points or 1.75 per cent. Similarly, NSE's Nifty recovered 48.40 points or 0.96 per cent to 5,098.35.
“After a jittery week, markets opened with an upside gap on the back of strong rally in global markets. Both Asian as well as the US markets had closed with significant gains on Friday, after euro-zone leaders made some progress (ahead of yesterday's meeting) towards a strategy to tackle the region's debt crisis,” said Shanu Goel, Senior Research Analyst at Bonanza Portfolio.
Goel added, “Market is expected to be volatile ahead of RBI's monetary policy review and October derivative series expiry tomorrow.”
Market is expecting 25 bps rise in key lending rate by the Reserve Bank at tomorrow's monetary policy meeting to tame high inflation.
IT, auto, refinery, FMCG and realty stocks attracted good buying support, while capital goods and some of the banking counters closed with losses.
In Asia, economic indicators from China and Japan supported the market. Key indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan closed higher between 4.14 per cent and 1.79 per cent.
However, European stocks were quoting narrowly mixed in the afternoon. The CAC was down by 0.13 per cent and DAX by 0.17 pc, while FTSE was up 0.15 pc.
Back home, FIIs sold shares worth Rs 234.01 crore on Friday as per provisional data.
Overall, 23 of the 30 Sensex-scrips closed with gains, while others finished with losses. Tata Motors rose 4.44 per cent, followed by ONGC (4.09 pc), HUL (3.14 pc), Bajaj Auto (3.12 pc), TCS (2.97 pc), Infosys (1.65 pc), ITC (1.52 pc), Hindalco (1.48 pc), Maruti Suzuki (1.46 pc), Bharti Airtel (1.36 pc), RIL (1.30 pc), Wipro (1.14 pc), HDFC (1.02 pc) and Tata Steel (0.98 pc).
However, L&T dipped 3.11 per cent, SBI (2.11 pc) and Coal India (1.28 pc).
Among the sectoral indices, BSE-IT firmed 1.91 per cent, Auto (1.86 pc), Oil&Gas (1.65 pc), FMCG (1.36 pc) and Realty (1.06 pc). BSE-Capital Goods tumbled 1.78 per cent. Reflecting selling in second-line stocks, total market breadth on the BSE remained negative with 1,528 stocks losing ground, as against 1,278 settling with gains. The total turnover dipped further to Rs 1,996.15 crore from Rs 2,342.96 crore.
