Sensex closes up 111 points; ONGC gains 9%

BL 10-05-2010 MUMBAI: Indian people walks past outside the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) as they watch the sensex index on the digital board (unseen) in Mumbai on Monday. The markets today showed a spectacular performance with the Sensex ending 561points at 17,330 on the back of strong global vibes and gain in metal scrips.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Thursday closed up by 111 points with PSU and oil and gas sector stocks attracting good buying support.

The 30-share index ended the day with a gain of 111.19 points at 16,519.68.

Bouncing back from yesterday?s massive 467-point loss, the index touched the day?s high of 16,617.80 in intra-day.

The National Stock Exchange index Nifty too rose by 27.95 points to 4,947.60.

Exploration major ONGC led the rally with a hefty gain 8.72 per cent, a day after the government doubled the prices of natural gas.

Brokers said with spectrum auction coming to end the uncertainty for telecom companies is over and it helped improve the sentiment. Moreover, it is expected that the revenue earned from 3G auction would be utilised to improve economic growth.

The PSU index was the best performer of the day among sectoral indices at 1.87 per cent. Oil and gas index was a close second at 1.79 per cent.

A firm opening in the European markets this afternoon further supported the uptrend and saved the market from any negative impact from weakening Asian trend, marketmen said.