The Hindu : Business : Sensex recovers 128 points

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Saturday, Mar 07, 2009
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Sensex recovers 128 points

Late buying helps the benchmark index post gain

MUMBAI: Fag-end buying in IT, metals and refinery shares helped the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex to turn the corner, making good its early losses to end 128 points higher.

Hectic short-covering in key stocks on the last trading day of the week mainly helped the recovery.

IT shares were at the forefront following a sustained fall in the rupee to near the 52-level against the dollar as a major part of their earnings comes from abroad. The BSE 30-share Sensex initially touched a low of 8047.17 due to weakness in Asian indices on the back of a steep fall on Wall Street on Thursday.

However, good buying support in the concluding session pushed the Sensex up to settle at 8325.82, a rise of 127.90 points or 1.56 per cent over the previous close.

On Thursday, it had tumbled by 248 points or 2.94 per cent.

The broad-based 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also recovered by 43.45 points or 1.69 per cent to 2620.15 from its last close.

Besides Taiwan, most of the other Asian markets closed in the red on Friday with a fall between 0.30 per cent and 3.50 per cent while the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 4.09 per cent and the Nasdaq composite shed 4 per cent on Thursday.

U.S. stocks plunged amid a spate of weak economic news, turmoil in companies and disappointment at the announcement on the expected new Chinese economic stimulus plan not coming. However, European indices resumed better. CAC was up 0.41 per cent, DAX 0.76 per cent and FTSE 1.07 per cent.

Satyam Computer, on the BSE, surged nearly 20 per cent on news that the company had received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to facilitate a global competitive bidding process to invite 51 per cent stake.

According to analysts, the recovery seemed to be only a pull-back rally on short-covering and could not be sustained due to host of negative factors like a worsening economy, fall in exports, a high fiscal deficit, sustained selling by foreign funds and concern at the forthcoming general elections.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers and they have pulled out nearly $2.1 billion in 2009 so far.

From index-based shares, HDFC rose by 6.40 per cent, Hindalco by 4.38 per cent, Jaiprakash Associates by 4.27 per cent, TCS by 3.84 per cent, Wipro by 3.37 per cent, ONGC by 3.31 per cent, Tata Steel by 3.12 per cent and Infosys by 3.08 per cent. However, Maruti Suzuki declined by 2.77 per cent, HUL by 2.65 per cent, Ranbaxy by 2.15 per cent and ITC by 1.61 per cent. — PTI

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