Sensex at 11-week high, up 157 points on FII buying

The BSE Sensex today reached 11-week high of 17,234, up 157 points, as it made gains for the sixth session in a row on aggressive FII buying on a string of positives including food inflation staying in the negative terrain and firm Asian markets.

Investor mood has been on the upswing of late, especially after the Reserve Bank decided this week to cut cash reserve ratio (CRR) to infuse liquidity into the financial system -- around Rs32,000 crore.

Refinery, consumer durables, teck, metals, capital goods, IT and auto stocks attracted good buying, although realty, FMCG and banking lost ground.

Top heavyweights - RIL and Infosys with 20% weight in the Sensex - made strong gains. Besides, L&T, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, ONGC, Sterlite, Tata Steel and TCS propped the key index.

However, ITC, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Bajaj Auto, BHEL, Jindal Steel, Hero MotoCo, DLF and SBI lost ground and restricted the gain.

Besides, food inflation remained in the negative zone at (-)1.03% for the week ended January 14, from (-)0.42% in the preceding week, adding to investor confidence.

Market experts said the decline will help rein in the overall inflation and help the apex bank cut key lending rates in March.

The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer opened in the green and remained positive throughout the day to settle at 17,233.98, up 156.80 points or 0.92%.

Previously,it had ended at 17,362.10 on November 9.

The 50-issue index the National Stock Exchange, Nifty, also spurted by 46.40 points or 0.90% to cross 5,200-mark after 11-week to finish at 5,204.70.

"The Indian market has been on the gaining spree for the last few days and today it is up around 157 points mainly on account of aggressive buying from the foreign institutional investors," Wellindia's Head of Equity Research, Hemant K mamtani said.

Besides, US Federal Reserve's saying that it will keep interest rates low till late 2014 also boosted sentiment, he added.

FIIs, major market movers, pumped in Rs1,147.01 crore on January 25. As per Sebi figures, they have pumped in Rs7,900.90 crore this month till January 24.

Globally, barring Japan, most of the Asian stocks ended in the green. Key indices in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea gained up to 0.75%.

In Europe, except Germany, markets were trading slightly lower in the afternoon.

Overall, 16 of the 30 Sensex scrips finished with gains. Sterlite flared up by 5.49%, followed by Tata Motors (4.10%), L&T( 3.76%), Bharti Airtel (3.66%), RIL (3.48%), Tata Steel (3.09%), Infosys (2.29%), Sun Pharma (2.28%), ONGC (2.22%), GAIL India (1.98%), Maruti Suzuki (1.88%), Hindalco (1.69%), M&M (1.68%), TCS (1.10%) and ICICI Bank (1.08%).

However, DLF dipped 3.47%, Bajaj Auto - 3.07%, BHEL - 2.84%, Hero MotoCo - 2.21%, Jindal Steel - 2.04%, ITC -1.97%, HDFC Bank - 1.33%, HDFC - 1.29%, Tata Power - 1.19% and SBI - 0.68%.

Amongst sectoral indices, BSE-Oil&Gas jumped 2.69%, Consumer Durables - 2.54%, Teck - 2.02%, Metals - 1.89%, Capital Goods - 1.82%, IT - 1.66% and Auto - 1.05%, while Realty slumped by 2.22%.

The market breadth at the BSE remained positive as 1,781 stocks ended in the green, as against 1,106 that closed with losses. The total turnover was slightly lower at Rs2,756.86 crore from Rs2,794.96 crore last Wednesday.