Sensex gains for the second day; up 133 points on value buying

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark Sensex advanced by over 133 points today as investors concluded monthly derivative settlements and bought stocks that showed strong fundamentals.

The BSE index, Sensex, which gained 230 points in the previous session, rose by another 133.04 points to reach 20,389.07.

Brokers said the benchmark index was among the best performers in the Asian region.

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 41.50 points to 6,101.85 on the back of a firming trend in consumer durables, realty, IT and metal sector stocks.

The value buying in strong fundamental stocks and investors' carrying-forward their positions in the derivative sector on expectations of a better trend in the coming days, diluted the impact of negative news from food inflation.

Food inflation surged to a 10-week high of 14.44% for the week ended December 18, the fifth consecutive week when the rate of price rise of food items increased.

Even mixed trend in the global markets failed to dampen the market sentiment. Barring oil and gas sector all the sectoral indices closed higher.

NTPC Ltd, the biggest power producer, advanced to a two-month high by adding 2% at Rs201.90 and Tata Motors, the owner of Jaguar Land Rover, gained the most in two weeks by 1.87% to Rs1,296.20.

The consumer durable sector gained the most by rising 1.32% to 6,311.48 followed by realty sector by 1.26% to 2,789.34. The IT sector index rose by 1.04% to 6,827.59 and metal index by 0.98% to 1,7508.83.

With the buying activity spilling over a wide-front, midcap sector index rose by 0.73% to 7,714.61 and smallcap index by 0.43% to 9,592.61.