Sensex snaps 5-day losing streak

Investors were richer by Rs 32,000 crore today after substantial amount of wealth was washed away on sustained selling in the previous five sessions. Barring a brief spell of selling that saw Sensex touch a 17-week low of 16,123.04, sentiment was buoyant for most of the day helping the 30-share benchmark cut its losing streak and close at 16,328.25, a rise of 112.41 points or 0.69 per cent. In last five sessions, Sensex had plunged by 696.87 points or 4.12 per cent with investors fretting over fundamental weakness in the economy and Eurozone worries.

Brokers said apart from rupee and European trends, corporate earnings from L&T boosted the trading sentiment. "Initial buying was seen in capital goods stock L&T, as sentiments improved for the counter on better-than-expected Q4FY12 results yesterday. Buying was also seen in IT stocks as value buying emerged after recent fall. Momentum increased as the session progressed," said Shanu Goel, Senior Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio. L&T with over 5.4 per cent gains was the biggest gainer among Sensex pack after strong fourth quarter earnings and robust future outlook.

"Market recovered as RBI intervened and rupee, after touching low of 54.25, recovered... traders cut short positions. If rupee travels towards 52, then we can see some more recovery in Sensex and Nifty," said Kishor P Ostwal, CMD, CNI Research. Among the index heavyweights, Infosys, L&T and ICICI Bank together contributed over 100 points to the index`s gains.

The NSE 50-share Nifty also recovered by 35 points or 0.71 per cent to settle at 4,942.80. European markets were quoting higher in their afternoon deals after Germany earlier today released stronger- than-expected gross domestic product (GDP) data, showing return to growth for Europe`s largest economy, while France`s GDP was stable. The CAC, the DAX and the FTSE were trading between 0.26 per cent and 0.37 per cent higher. Asian stocks were mostly lower in the early trade on weak US stocks on Monday but ended mixed amid increasing concern over a Greek exit from the eurozone.

In the Indian markets, 19 scrips out of the 30-share index gained while 11 counters declined. Other major gainers from Sensex pack were Sun Pharma (3.20 pc), Sterlite Industries (3.16 pc), Infosys (3.13 pc), Hero MotoCorp (2.65 pc), DLF (2.50 pc), Tata Steel (2.39 pc) and Jindal Steel (2.25 pc). ICICI Bank, Hindalco, Bajaj Auto, Cipla and SBI ended with 1-2 per cent gains.

However, Sensex losers today were led by NTPC that fell by 2.94 per cent, followed by Maruti Suzuki (2.57 pc), ITC (1.35 pc), Bharti Airtel (1.28 pc) and Gail India (1.27 pc). Among the sectoral indices, the BSE-Capital Goods rose by 3.07 per cent, followed by the BSE-Metal (2.21 pc), BSE-IT 1.56 (pc), BSE-TECk (1.09 pc) and BSE-Healthcare (0.97 pc).