Mumbai, Oct 22: Shrugging off early losses, the BSE benchmark Sensex today rallied by 111 points on strong earnings by TCS and L&T, besides good buying in capital goods and bank shares.
After hitting the day's low of 18,600.88 within the first 30 minutes of trading, the index staged a smart recovery. Led by TCS and L&T that gained over 2 per cent each, the Sensex closed 111.13 points, or 0.59 per cent, higher at 18,793.44.
The rally was led by stocks of capital goods, healthcare, banking and IT sectors, said dealers.
Trading sentiment turned better as investors picked up fundamentally strong stocks. TCS was the top gainer among the 30-share Sensex index as its shares ended 2.26 per cent up.
Engineering & construction major L&T hit 52-week high and finished 2.17 per cent higher after reporting a better-than -expected 42 per cent profit rise in September results today.
“Markets continued to consolidate as participants remained cautious ahead of Futures & Options expiry on Thursday. A lot of action can be expected in rate-sensitives ahead of RBI meet on October 30,” said Amar Ambani, Head of Research, IIFL.
Traders said the domestic market received further support on a similar recovery in Asian stocks.
Among Sensex constituents, 20 stocks closed higher. RIL and Infosys also rose. ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gained around 1.7 per cent each.
The 50-share National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 32.90 points, or 0.58 per cent to 5,717.15, after touching a low of 5,658.05.
“Nifty showed good strength from support near 5650 levels and closed in green above 5700 levels. Buying interest may be continuing above 5720 levels,” said Puneet Kinra, Senior Technical Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio.
Many Asian stocks reversed initial losses today as US index futures indicated recovery in US stocks at the opening bell after Friday's sharp losses.
Key benchmark indices in China, Japan and Hong Kong moved up by between 0.09 per cent to 0.68 per cent while indices in Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea shed between 0.11 per cent to 0.48 per cent.
European stocks, however, fell in early trade as key indices in UK and France moved up by 0.14 per cent and 0.21 per cent respectively. Germany's DAX shed 0.06 percent.
Trading in US index futures indicated the Dow could gain 24 points at the opening bell today, said dealers.
The Federal Open Market Committee will release its statement on Wednesday following a two-day policy meeting on interest rates in the US.
Back home, other major gainers from Sensex were Bharti Airtel (1.91 pc), NTPC (1.74 pc), HDFC Bank (1.73 pc), ICICI Bank (1.69 pc), Cipla (1.48 pc), Reliance Ind (1.43 pc), M&M (1.34 pc), Dr Reddy (1.20 pc) and Tata Power (1.19 pc).
However, Jindal Steel dropped by 1.52 per cent, followed by ITC 1.24 per cent, Sterlite Ind 1.15 per cent and Hero Motocorp 1.01 per cent.
Among major BSE indices, the Capital Goods shot up 1.30 per cent, followed by Healthcare (1.07 pc) and the Bankex (1.00 pc).
The overall market breadth remained negative as 1,446 shares ended with losses while 1,405 finished with gains. Total turnover dropped to Rs 1,817.03 crore from Rs 2,190.01 crore on last Friday.
Provisional data showed Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers on last Friday as FIIs bought shares worth a net Rs 80.11 crore.
