Sensex crosses 21,000-mark after 35 months in morning trade

The S&P BSE benchmark Sensex crossed 21,000-mark after a gap of 35 months on hectic buying mainly in realty, auto, banking, consumer durables and refinery sectors on the back of persistent foreign capital inflows.
Shares of PSU banks gained after the Ministry of Finance after trading hours yesterday said that the Government of India (GoI) has approved infusion of a total of Rs 14,000 crore in 20 public sector banks (PSBs) during this fiscal through preferential allotment of equity shares.
Major gainers in banking sectors were State Bank of India (SBI) (1.09 pct), Punjab National Bank (1.27 pct), Bank of Baroda (1.67 pct), Bank of India (0.7 pct) and Union Bank of India (1.5 pct).

Other gainers were Tata Motors (2.51 pct), Bharti Airtel (2.08 pct), SSLT (1.71 pct), ONGC (1.69 pct) and M&M (1.41 pct).
The Sensex resumed slightly lower at 20,766.05 before bouncing back to cross 21,000-mark immediately to 21,039.42 before quoting at 20,972.64 (1030hrs), showing a sharp gain of 204.76 points or 0.99 per cent from its last close.
The Sensex was last quoted at 21,075.71 on November 8, 2010, during the intra-day trade.

The NSE 50-share Nifty also rose by 60 points or 0.97 per cent to 6,238.35 (1030hrs).
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 644.80 crore yesterday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

Asian markets were trading lower in their early trade as China's money-market rates continued to surge and after US shares retreated from a record amid disappointing company earnings forecasts. Key benchmark indices in Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Japan fell by 0.1 pct to 0.81 pct.