Sensex bounces back, surges 212 points

The Sensex reversed its direction on Thursday and gained 212 points "" the highest increase on a single day in more than 80 days "" due to across-the-board buying in all sectors.

Dealers said FII interest was strong on Thursday, though Sebi data showed minor inflows on Wednesday. Domestic fund buying was reported in several top line counters, including Wipro, Bharti, Tata Motors, Satyam, BHEL and Cummins.

The rally was aided by a change in sentiment in other Asian markets that have been slipping over the past few sessions following disappointing results and rising crude oil prices. Among the regional indices, the Nikkei 225 index jumped 355.10 points, or 2.31 per cent, arresting a four-day fall.

The Hang Seng rose 1.22 per cent, the Jakarta Stock Exchange Composite Index ended 3.1 per cent higher, the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 1.5 per cent and the Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or Kospi, rose 0.6 per cent.

The benchmark index touched an intra-day high of 9,473.86 before closing at 9,450, up 2.3 per cent. The Nifty, too, moved up 2.2 per cent to close at 2,871.

The market breadth was overwhelmingly positive, with gainers outpacing losers by 3.73:1. Of the 2,566 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,983 stocks advanced, 531 declined and 52 ended unchanged. Other benchmark indices like the BSE mid-cap and the BSE small-cap rose over 2 per cent each.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Teck Index soared 3.41 per cent, the BSE Metal Index scaled 3.33 per cent, the BSE IT Index jumped by 3.30 per cent and the BSE CG Index was up 3 per cent. Other sectoral indices also ended higher.

None of the benchmark indices on the BSE moved down, but technology stocks led by Wipro were the biggest gainers. The stock moved up 7.71 per cent, closing at Rs 496.70.

"The markets seem to have taken cue from Wipro's results to reverse the direction of the last few days," said a broker, pointing to the reversal the bourses had witnessed over the last one week.

Metals, IT & Capital indices were the star performers in Thursday's rally, with their sectoral indices moving up more than 3 per cent on the BSE.

Among the top metals stocks were Hindustan Zinc, Sail, Hindalco, JSW Steel and Tata Steel. Hindustan Zinc gained 5.6 per cent after it announced a 102 per cent jump in its net profit for the third quarter.

Among the IT stocks Infosys Technologies was up by Rs 86.20, Wipro by Rs 35.55, TCS by Rs 31.25 and Satyam, with rumours of a takeover by IBM doing the rounds, was up by Rs 26.55.

"Wipro's results were above market expectations and this caused the initial movement in the tech stocks," an analyst pointed out.

Shares of Jet Airways, whose Board approved the takeover of fellow airlines Sahara, put on 1.88 per cent to end up at Rs 1150.