Short-covering lifts market; Sensex up 180 points

Mumbai, Dec 26 (IANS) Value buying on the back of attractive valuations along with

short-covering ahead of derivatives expiry and low crude oil prices buoyed the major domestic equity indices on Wednesday, with the barometer BSE Sensex gaining 180 points.

The volatile trade session closed with the equity market making a strong recovery at the last hour led by the financial sector that ended with 0.88 per cent gains on the BSE, while on the NSE, only the export-oriented Nifty IT and pharma index ended lower.

"Market recovered from day's low led by buying in banking stocks and short covering ahead of F&O expiry which subsided global headwinds," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

The S&P BSE Sensex settled 179.79 points or 0.51 per cent higher at 35,649.94, after touching an intra-day high of 35,711.26 and a low of 35,010.82.

The NSE's Nifty50 gained 66.35 points or 0.62 per cent to finish at 10,729.85.

"Technically, with the Nifty bouncing back strongly, traders will need to watch if the index can now cross the immediate resistance of 10,759 for further upsides. Immediate support is now at 10,672," said Deepak Jasani, HDFC Securities' Retail Research Head.

Even the Indian rupee strengthened against the US dollar at 70.07 from its previous close at 70.14 per US dollar.

In terms of crude oil prices, after an initial decline below the $50-mark, the Brent index inched up to $50.93 per barrel in the international markets at the time of closing bell here.

"The oil market is facing a lot of uncertainty and one possibility is that OPEC may go for a further production cut if prices decline," Anuj Gupta, Deputy Vice President - Research, Commodities and Forex, Angel Broking, told IANS.

Investment-wise, provisional figures from stock exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 80.28 crore. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold stocks worth Rs 137.63 crore.

On stock specific basis, gainers on Sensex were led by Bharti Airtel, which ended 3.95 per cent higher, while HDFC Bank, HDFC, L&T, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Maruti Suzuki gained upto 2 per cent.

In contrast, top index loser was Sun Pharma which closed 2.23 per cent lower. Yes Bank, TCS, Tata Motors, NTPC, Tata Motors (DVR) and NTPC lost upto 1.5 per cent.