The Hindu Business Line : Domestic buying lifts Sensex 788 points intra-day

Mumbai, Sept. 18 Heavy buying by domestic institutional investors and short covering pulled the Sensex up by a staggering 788 points from its intra-day low of 12,558 points on Friday.

Tracking the weak global markets, the index opened at 12712, with a huge negative gap of 550 points from its previous close. The Dow was down 4.06 per cent on Wednesday, while the Hang Seng was up 0.03 per cent on Thursday and the Nikkei down 2.22 per cent.

Sentiment brightened after the European markets opened in the green and after various central banks across the world announced massive injection of funds into their financial systems.

In India too, there was assurance from the Finance Minister that public sector banks were safe from the current US crisis.

The Sensex ended the day 0.40 per cent higher at 13315.60, while broader Nifty was up by 0.68 per cent.

Volumes rise

Cash volumes rose sharply on both bourses, with total trades amounting to Rs 16,088 crore on NSE (12,278) and Rs 7376.23 crore (Rs. 5813 crore) on BSE

While foreign institutional investors were net sellers to the tune of Rs 1201.64 crore, domestic institutions were net buyers of equity for Rs 1192.2 crore. Insurance companies are buying substantially, said dealers.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE-Bankex lead the rally gaining 2.68 per cent, BSE-Oil & Gas was up 2.36 per cent, BSE-CG up 0.95 per cent..

“Banking stocks gained in the second half of the day on the back of lower inflation expectations and assurances coming from the Finance Minister”, said Mr Alex Matthew, Head of Geojit Financial Services Ltd.

The top gainers on BSE were Sterlite Industries - 3.46 per cent, HDFC Bank - 3.17 per cent, Reliance - 3.16 per cent, NTPC - 3.05 per cent and ICICI Bank - 2.78 per cent.

The scrips which lost substantially were Ranbaxy Laboratories down 10.06 per cent, Jaiprakash Associates 6.73 per cent, and Satyam Computers 4.16 per cent. While 1944 stocks declined on BSE, only 676 stocks advanced.

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