Sensex ends up 199 pts

Realty, power, IT surge

The Sensex has ended (provisional) at 18,830 - up 199 points. Nifty ended down 66 points at 5,718.
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(updated at 1420 hrs)

Markets have rebounded sharply from the lows of the day with the Sensex gaining 159 points at 18,790. Nifty is up .50 points at 5,705 on the back of gains in European shares.

Investors shunned European shares and the euro and favoured safe-haven German government bonds on Thursday as a heavy downgrade of Spain by rating firm S&P added to pressure on Madrid to apply for a bailout.

Standard & Poor's cut Spain's rating two notches to BBB- minus, one step from junk status, late on Wednesday, warning that an intensifying recession and poor response from euro zone policymakers to the crisis had left Spain highly vulnerable.

The broader markets were trading with marginal gains with the BSE Mid-cap index up 1% while Small-cap index was up 0.75%. According to provisional data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained buyers of Indian stocks on Wednesday.

All the sectoral indices traded in the green. BSE realty index added 3.5% to 1,867. Capital goods, IT and [pwer shares advanced 1-1.5% each.

Realty and power shares witnessed buying at lower levels after they witnessed a sharp sell off in the previous sessions. Tata Power and NTPC were up 0.5-1.5% each. In the realty space DLF was up 2.4% at Rs 218. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs downgraded DLF to 'neutral' from 'buy', saying slower approvals could result in fewer project launches, while cutting its pre-sale estimates for India's largest property developer.

Auto shares was up 0.3% - the smallest mover in the index.The Society of Indian Automobile Manfacturers Wednesday said, car sales in India are seen growing just 1-3% in the financial year that ends in March 2013, as it slashed its previous estimate of 9-11% on high interest rates and slowing economic growth. Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra and  Hero MooCorp were the key losers - down 1% each..

Two-wheeler makers Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto were down 0.5% each after a foreign brokerage downgraded both of them. CLSA has downgraded Bajaj Auto to 'sell' from 'underperform', while maintaining its 'sell' rating on Hero MotoCorp, citing weak demand growth, a consumer shift to scooters over motorcycles, and rising competition.

Infosys was up 1.8% at Rs 2,551 ahead of its results on Friday. The street consensus for the dollar revenue growth of the IT major is between 3.5-4%. HDFC Bank, which also comes out with results tomorrow, is up 0.8% at Rs 623.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was flat at Rs 819 on profit taking after recent gains.