Late rebound cheers

STOCKS REPORT

Short covering combined with fund-based and institutional buying helped the market recover in the latter half of the day on Thursday, closing firmly in positive territory.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex closed at 4,839.88, up 1.07 per cent (51.08 points) over Wednesday's close. The benchmark Sensex had fallen 42 points to the day's low 4,746.51 before recovering 114 points to hit the day's high of 4,859.81.

The 30-scrip Sensex basket saw 22 scrips closing higher, with most blue-chips attracting buying attention. The broader market was also positive, with gainers outpacing losers marginally 826:795 on the BSE.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty gained 17.30 points to close at 1,512.05.

The BSE Bankex index was the biggest gainer, up 1.90 per cent, followed by BSE TECk index, up 1.45 per cent and the PSU index was up 1.37 per cent.

Auto, cement and banking stocks were in the limelight on Thursday. Zee Telefilms was the biggest gainer in the Sensex basket, up 6.88 per cent to Rs 135.10, followed by Maruti Udyog, up 4.39 per cent to Rs 399.40 and Tata Motors was up 3.01 per cent to Rs 401.85.

The BSE Healthcare index was the biggest loser, down 2.49 per cent. Dr Reddy's Labs was the biggest loser in the Sensex basket, down 4.52 per cent to Rs 754.95, followed by Ranbaxy Labs, down 3.29 per cent to Rs 965 and Cipla fell 2.64 per cent to Rs 210.45.

Heavyweights Reliance Industries gained 1.80 per cent to Rs 454.30, the State Bank of India scrip was up 1.50 per cent to Rs 449.10, ITC gained 0.76 per cent to Rs 891.40 and HLL was up 0.51 per cent to Rs 128.60.

Satyam Computer gained 2.83 per cent to Rs 297.70, Wipro was up 1.34 per cent to Rs 1,503.85 and Infosys Technologies was up 1.18 per cent to Rs 5,204.

ICICI Bank was up 2.14 per cent to Rs 262.80 and HDFC Bank gained 1.61 per cent to Rs 375.

Volumes continued to remain low on the exchanges with cash market turnover of Rs 1,444.48 crore recorded on the BSE and Rs 3,396.10 crore on the NSE.

Brokers said that short-covering gathered momentum towards the end of the session, with the gap between cash and futures market reducing significantly.

The gap between the cash Nifty and the June futures contract has been quite big in the last few days but unwinding before the current month series' expiry next week helped the market close in positive territory.