Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex snapped a six-day losing spree today as it recovered from a three-month low and notched up gains of over 216 points in a choppy trade on the back of value-buying in recently beaten-down commodity stocks, led by Reliance Industries, Hindalco and Tata Steel.
However, sentiment remained cautious ahead of the next week’s US Federal Reserve meeting where interest rates are expected to go north for the first time in nearly a decade and a possible delay in the passage of key reform GST bill.
In volatile movements, the 30-share Sensex opened on a firm note at 25,136.71 and advanced to hit a high of 25,289.58 largely supported by rebound in blue-chip.
As profit-booking took hold it slipped into the negative zone briefly before finally closing the session 216.27 points or 0.86 per cent higher at 25,252.32.
The gauge had lost 1,133.36 points in the last six days on sustained foreign fund outflows amid worries about a possible delay in the key tax reform GST bill.
The broad-based Nifty ended 70.80 points or 0.93 per cent higher at 7,683.30 after shuttling between 7,691.95 and 7,610.
Both the indices, Sensex and Nifty, recorded their biggest single-session gain since November 19.
Shares of real estate companies such as DLF, Indiabulls Real Estate, Unitech and NBCC were in better form and settled up to 3.26 per cent higher after the Cabinet approved Real Estate (regulation and Development) bill 2015.
Of the 30 Sensex components, 19 ended in the positive zone, led by RIL, which surged by 3.71 per cent, followed by Hindalco (3.05 pc), Tata Steel (2.69 pc) and NTPC (2.50 pc).
Other gainers were HDFC, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, GAIL, Infosys, ITC, HDFC Bank, ONGC, Vedanta, Coal India, L&T, TCS, Maruti Suzuki and Bharti Airtel.
Sectorally, oil&gas surged the most by climbing 1.89 per cent, followed by metal (1.65 pc), realty (1.63 pc), IT (1.31 pc) teck (1.20 pc) and power (1.03 pc).
In broader markets, small-cap and mid-cap indices ended 1.24 per cent and 0.90 per cent higher, respectively.
Indices in other Asian markets, including those in Hong Kong and Singapore were lower, Shanghai Composite fell 0.49 per cent. Europe was also down in early trade.
