Sensex rebounds 331 points in late buying surge, rupee recovers

Mumbai: The benchmark Sensex on Tuesday rose for the first time in three days and ended about 331 points up at 25,521.19 on heavy buying in the last hour on fund-based activity in RIL, ICICI Bank, ONGC and L&T shares, amid some recovery in the rupee.

Recently battered stocks led by oil and gas, banking and PSUs led the rally today while positive cues from global indices helped Sensex maintain gains, say brokers. The BSE 30-share index began lower and gradually slipped further to touch day's low of 25,104.50. However, revival of buying activity towards the fag-end helped it rebound to settle the day at 25,521.19, clocking a sharp rise of 330.71 points or 1.31 per cent from its close on Monday.

The gain comes after the index lost 385.73 points in the previous two days on concerns over rising WPI-inflation which zoomed to five-month high, weakening rupee and soaring global crude oil prices on escalating tension in Iraq.

The 50-share Nifty of National Stock Exchange reclaimed the 7,600 point mark by spurting 98.15 points, or 1.30 per cent, to close the day at 7,631.70. It moved between 7,509.25 and 7,637.60 during the session.

Dipen Shah, Head of Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities, said: "The rise was surprising and likely a result of some fund buying in the large cap stocks. The rupee fell at the start of trading before recovering quite a bit mid-day, likely due to the participation by banks and exporters." The rupee recovered from six-week low of 60.51 against the US dollar to trade at 59.95 in late afternoon.

According to Rakesh Goyal, Senior Vice President, Bonanza Portfolio, a slide in crude oil prices and positive global cues also boosted the market sentiment. Among sectoral indices, BSE oil and gas sector gained the most by surging 2.86 per cent, followed by PSU index (up 2.74 per cent), Banking index (2.28 per cent) and Capital Goods index (1.93 per cent). FMCG index, however, fell. Investors were also seen creating fresh positions in small and mid-cap sector stocks. Small-cap index gained 2.03 per cent and the mid-cap index by 1.50 per cent.