Volatile Sensex ends 88 pts higher; Bharti Airtel, ONGC surge

After rising 260 points, the S&P BSE Sensex today surrendered some gains on profit-booking in the last half an hour to end about 88 points higher helped by smart jump in bluechips like Bharti Airtel, ONGC and M&M, amid a stable trend in the rupee.
Firm European cues and talk of short-covering ahead of expiry of derivatives contract on June 27, also helped domestic stocks cement gains, said traders.
The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer commenced slightly lower following weak Asian cues as Chinese markets slumped over 5 per cent on fears of liquidity crunch.
Later, Sensex bounced back due to firm opening in Europe and touched a high of 18,802.31, showing a rise over 260 points. However, the surge proved to be short-lived as it partly succumbed to profit-booking to settle at 18,629.15, still showing a rise of 88.26 points or 0.48 per cent.

Yesterday, it had tumbled by 233.35 points.
The wide-based 50-issue CNX Nifty of the NSE also rose by 18.85 points, or 0.34 per cent to 5,609.10. Also, SX40 index, the flagship index of MCX-SX, closed 84.79 points at 11097.94.

Sensex-based counters like ITC, ONGC, RIL, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, M&M and L&T were in keen demand while ICICI Bank, HDFC, SBI, TCS, NTPC, Tata Motors and Wipro ended down.
Bharti Airtel was in demand ahead of an EGoM meeting to decide on airwaves auction price. ONGC shot up by 3.8 per cent after OVL-OIL announced USD 2.5 billion buy of Videocon's 10 per cent stake in a Mozambique gas field.

According to market participants, the market may remain volatile in the next couple of days ahead of expiry of the futures & options (F&O) June contract on Thursday.
"...Selling continued in most of the midcaps and metal stocks. Despite gains, market breadth remained negative," said Nidhi Saraswat, Senior Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio.
Rupee was trading flattish at 59.6 levels today after settling at all-time low closing of 59.67/68 against dollar yesterday.