Even as the joint US-UK attack on Afghanistan has been stepped up, the equity and currency markets returned to a semblance of normalcy.
Shrugging off the Afghanistan blues, the Sensex reversed some of its Monday losses on all-round buying to settle at 2,794.42 points, up 29.05 points or 1.05 per cent. On the National Stock Exchange, the S&P CNX Nifty ended at 912.7, up 10.75 points.
The rupee strengthened against the dollar during the day to close at 48.11/12 against yesterday's closing of 48.12/14, after trading in the range of 48.11-48.17 in a subdued market. Government security prices went up by 30-40 paise across all maturities as bankers felt that a 50 basis point cut in the benchmark bank rate was round the corner. The yield on 10-year benchmark paper fell to 9.11 per cent from yesterday's closing of 9.19 per cent.
Call money rates ruled easy in the range of 6.75 per cent to 7.10 per cent today as the foreign exchange market turned stable.Said a dealer with a private sector bank, "Liquidity conditions were good while the there was no pressure in the foreign exchange market. This made the overnight rates to hover around the refinance rate of seven per cent."
Today's rise in the Sensex was in line with share indices in other Asian markets. With the exception of share prices in Japan, scrip prices in all Asian markets were on the rise. In Japan, the Nikkei fell 1.9 per cent in its first trading day after the attacks, ending just above the 10,000-mark at 10,011.77. In Seoul, the benchmark Kospi rose 2.3 per cent to 507.61, the Taiex in Taiwan closed up 2.8 per cent to 3,618.93 and in Singapore, the Straits Times index ended higher by 2.49 per cent to 1,382.56.
"Every body has adopted a wait and watch policy in the market. The next trigger point would be the second quarter result of Infosys to be announced tomorrow. Any profit warning by Infosys could have an adverse impact on the market," says a broker.
Infosys Technologies (up 0.99 per cent to Rs 2,415.40) declined towards the close of the session, coming off from an intra-day high of Rs 2,474.94 on selling pressure on the eve of the announcement of its quarterly results. Satyam Computer came off from an intra-day high of Rs 124 to Rs 117.30 before settling at Rs 118.95, down 0.42 per cent from its previous close.
"Blue chip stocks across sectors emerged as winners as investors hunted for bargains at lower levels," said Sunil Shah, director, Evergreen Broking. However, the mood was cautious and the short-term outlook uncertain.
The market breadth was positive as gainers outnumbered losers 641 to 477 in a volume of 47.6 million shares, higher than 42.6 million shares on Monday, but less than last week's average of over 50 million shares. Defensive pharmaceutical stocks including Glaxo (up 3.05 per cent to Rs 232.90), Ranbaxy Laboratories (up 1.68 per cent to Rs 679.55) and Cipla (up 0.89 per cent to Rs 1,045.25) recorded gains on fund-based buying.
