Sensex gains for fourth day, up by 59 points

The BSE benchmark Sensex today rose by 59 points to extend the gains for the fourth straight day, the longest winning streak in two months, on sustained buying by investors in heavyweight stocks, led by Bharti Airtel.

The 30-share index closed at 17,578.23 points, a gain of 58.97 points over the previous close. The index had gained nearly 354 points in the last three sessions.

Brokers said funds and retail investors remained aggressive buyers after global rating agency Standard and Poor's upgraded the country's outlook to stable from negative.

A firming overseas trend and a better opening in European stock markets further fuelled the uptrend, they added.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 16.90 points to Rs5,262.80 points.

Bharti Airtel was the biggest gainer among the Sensex stocks rising nearly four per cent to Rs311.85 after it applied for broadband wireless access services spectrum and 3G licence.

Reliance Industries, the heaviest among index stocks, rose by 1.37% to Rs1,089.80.

Marketmen said that the operators were seen busy in rolling over their positions, eigher short or long, to the next series ahead of the expiry of derivatives contract on March 25.

Global rating agency S&P yesterday revised India's rating outlook to stable from negative.

Foreign institutional investors, a key driving force, have injected nearly Rs 14,000 crore in this month.

Among the Sensex-stocks, Reliance Communications rose by 1.98%, Hero Honda by 1.76%, SBI by 1.42%, HUL by 1.40% and HDFC Bank by 0.84%.

However, HDFC declined by 1.55%, DLF by 1.36% and M&M by 1.27%.

The total market breadth was slightly negative with 1,459 counters ending with losses against 1,381 finishing with gains on the BSE.

The total volume dropped to Rs4,884.66 crore from Rs5,424.63 crore on Thursday. Jubilant Foodworks was the top traded share with the highest turnover of Rs298.71 crore.

Asian markets too ended better. Indices like Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei, Strait Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted closed in the green.