Sensex rebounds to close up by 44 points

MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Friday beat other Asain markets to close higher by more than over 40 points after recovering its early sharp losses.

The bellwether index on BSE settled the day at 9,690.07, up by 44.61 points. The National Stock Exchange index Nifty also closed higher by 1.20 points at 2,921.35.
      
Marketmen attributed the sudden bout of buying in late afternoon trade, which helped the Sensex rebound, to short covering by investors to cover their pending positions.
    
The markets had opened particularly weak with the barometer shedding over 300 points on reports of a weak trends in Asian markets which took cues from close to 4 per cent loss seen in major benchmark indices in the US following rejection of a bailout plan for the troubled auto majors General Motors, Ford, Chrysler.
     
Selling on BSE was further intensified after industrial output in October saw negative growth for the first time in 15 years. The index of industrial production shrunk by 0.4 per cent in October against 12.20 per cent in the same month a year ago.
  
Brokers said the positive sentiment generated by continuous fall in inflation has been negated by the abysmal fall in industrial output. Though the market has already
factored a lower economic growth rate this fiscal, the dismal picture of industrial production came as a jolt.

Realty stocks which have been on an upsurge for most part of the last week and this week stole the limelight today with the sectoral index at 3.94 per cent emerging as the biggest gainer among all indices. Real estate major DLF Ltd which lost over two per cet yesterday, soared 7.73 per cent to come out as the biggest Sensex gainer of the day. 

Barring Sensex, all Asian indices ended in red, led by Japan's Nikkei 225 and South Korea's Kospi which declined by more than five per cent.
    
On the BSE, besides realty scrips, oil and gas index shot up by 2.34 per cent at 6,145.35 points as segment major and Sensex heaviest Reliance Industries recorded a handsome gain of Rs 47.30 at Rs 1,306.20.
    
Consumer durable sector index rose by 2.93 per cent at  1,743.05 points, banking index by 1.20 per cent at 5,063.25 points, capital goods index by 0.25 per cent at 6,827.54 points, metal index by 0.23 per cent at 5,265.13 points, power index by 0.14 per cent at 1,758.50 points and FMCG index by 0.05 per cent at 1,945.50 points.
    
However, the fag-end buying failed to lift some sector indices such as information technologies, teck and healthcare. Information Technologies sector index fell by 2.88 per cent at 2,291.33 points as the segment major and second-heaviest on the Sensex Infosys Technologies fell by Rs 28.60 at Rs 1,107.40 points. Tata Consultancy Services also lost Rs 25.40 at Rs 482.25 and Wipro by Rs 11.30 at Rs 238.70.
    
Teck index fell by 1.70 per cent at 1,990.45 points, healthcare index by 0.32 per cent at 2,809.43 points, PSU index by 0.05 per cent at 4,718.52 points and Auto index by
0.01 per cent at 2,377.29 points.