Smart weekend for Sensex; pares 2-day losses with 91 pts gain

Mumbai, Dec 24 (PTI) Shrugging off weakness of the past
two sessions, the BSE benchmark Sensex regained the 20,000
level, bouncing back in the second half, gaining nearly 91
points on emergence of buying in blue-chips.
Marketmen attributed the rebound in the market to bargain
hunting in selective blue chips by the foreign institutional
investors before the holiday week.
After a volatile trade, the 30-share sensitive index of
the Bombay Stock Exchange ended the week on a strong note with
a gain of 0.45 per cent or 90.78 points at 20,073.66.
The National Stock Exchange's broad based Nifty too saw
the fag-end buying interest trimming its two-days losses, with
the index closing at 6,011.60, up 0.53 per cent or 31.60
points from previous close.
Anil Ambani-led firms stole the show with the telecom
giant Reliance Communications advancing by 10.51 per cent and
Reliance Infra gaining 3.4 per cent.
"Window dressing by the FIIs in terms of shopping in
poorly performing stocks towards the end of the year and
buying at attractive levels by the retail investors triggered
the recovery in the market," Geojit BNP Paribas Financial
Services Research Head Alex Mathews said.
"Besides, the news of finance ministry asking the labour
ministry to invest a part of the Rs 5 lakh crore corpus of the
employees provident fund in stock markets also improved the
sentiment on the street," Mathews added.
Buying in heavy weights including FMCG giant ITC and the
engineering major Larsen & Toubro helped in the rise of the
broader gauge. While the former ended with a gain of 1.8 per
cent, the latter witnessed a surge of 1.11 per cent.
Six of the 30-Sensex scrips capped the overall gains with
Tata Motors skidding the most. The scrip shed 3.17 per cent
while top lender ICICI Bank witnessed a dip of 1.01 per cent.
Another laggard was the oil and gas giant ONGC which
dropped by 0.48 per cent, causing the fall of over 11 points
in the sectoral index.
"Public sector oil marketing companies came under some
pressure after crude oil prices moved past the US$91 per
barrel mark," IIFL Head of Research Amar Ambani said.
Of the 13 sectoral indices, ten ended the day on firm
note with consumer durables and metals gaining the most.
Metals which were beaten down in the last session also
recovered with the copper producer Sterlite Industries surging
2.58 per cent and the aluminium producer Hindalco gaining 2.42
per cent.
On the global front, Asian markets ended weak with the
China's Shanghai slumping 0.70 per cent and Japan's Nikkei
declining 0.65 per cent.
European markets were also trading subdued in the
afternoon session. PTI