Sensex up 188 pts; realty, metal stocks gain

Reversing the losing trend of early trade, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Friday closed at three-week high of 9,424 points with realty and metal stocks leading the rally.

The bellwether index beat other Asian indices by notching up a gain of nearly 188 points on brisk buying by domestic institutional investors.

The barometer, which was down by nearly 149 points in early stages, bounced back with vengeance to settle the day at 9,424.24, a rise of 187.96 points or 2.04 per cent from its previous close.
    
The broader 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also recouped by 50.85 points or 1.80 per cent to 2,874.80.
    
Market participants attributed rally in share values to fresh buying by operators on the first day of the February derivatives contract.

Most of the Asian indices ended in the red following a steep fall on the Wall Street yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled by 2.7 per cent and 3.2 per cent respectively following heightened fears of recession getting deeper.

However, European markets resumed strong helping the local bourses to regain from early losses.
    
Brokers said hectic buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) mainly boosted the sentiment. DIIs picked up shares worth Rs 580.11 crore yesterday as per provisional data while foreign institutional investors continued their selling
spree and they sold shares to the tune of Rs 84.64 crore.

Jaipra Asso at 9.63 per cent was biggest gainer among the Sensex stocks. DLF Ltd was next best at 7.39 per cent.

Hindalco at 6.51 per cent, SBI at 5.05 per cent were the other prominent Sensex gainers.
    
RIL, the heaviest in the elite club, also closed higher by 4.51 per cent. Engineering major L &T which announced a three-fold rise profit in third quarter scored a 4.38 per cent gain. ONGC rose 2.98 per cent, pushing the sectoral index up by 3.58 per cent.

Among the losers, Sun Pharma was the worst at 6.10 per cent. BHEL was the second biggest loser at 2.60 per cent.
    
All sectoral indices, barring health care index, closed with gains in the range of 0.22 per cent of 4.32 per cent.
    
The BSE-Realty flared up by 4.32 per cent, while the BSE-Metal was up 4.05 per cent and BSE-Oil & Gas 3.58 per cent.

The market breadth was positive as 1,377 counters ended with gains against 1,015 that finished with losses on the BSE.
    
The trading volume declined to Rs 3,606.30 crore from Rs 3,825.19 crore on Thursday. RIL was the most active share with the highest turnover of Rs 290.76 crore.