Snapping a four-day losing streak, the BSE benchmark Sensex on Friday surged by 440 points to regain the 16,000-level on buying by funds in fundamentally strong stocks available at attractive low levels after recent fall.
The Sensex, which had lost 905 points in last four trading sessions, bounced back by 440.13 points, or 2.79 per cent to 16,232.54 points.
The gauge had touched a high of 16,347.48, a gain of over 555 points, during the day but reports of a higher inflation and a weakening trend in European stocks reduced the gains.
The food inflation rose to 9.41 per cent for the week ended September 24 from 9.13 per cent in the previous week.
The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty shot up by 136.75 to 4,888.05.
Brokers said buying after a long spell of losses emerged as investors picked stocks of fundamentally strong companies amid firming trend in the Asian region.
Reliance Industries and Infosys, which have 20 per cent weightage together in Sensex, ended with hefty gains. RIL shot up by 4.46 per cent to Rs 801.45 and Infosys by 2.15 per cent to Rs 2,507.05.
Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro also ended higher on expectations of easing sovereign debt crisis in eurozone.
The metal sector index gained the most by adding 5.39 per cent to 10,910.32 as index-linked Sterlite Industries shot up by 8.56 per cent to Rs 113.45.
The banking index was the second best performer by rising 3.88 per cent to 10,347.84 as State Bank of India, the largest lender, rallied 2.13 per cent to Rs 1,751.85 on reports the bank might cut its holdings of government bonds and boost lending to companies.
