Sensex ends 150 in green as RIL surges

Mumbai: The 4 per cent rally in Reliance Industries' share price finally helped Equity benchmarks recoup all its losses. RIL's recovery, in turn, was led by confidence expressed by British Petroleum.

Short covering in European markets post deep cut on Monday too improved sentiments.

The 30-share BSE Sensex recovered from yesterday's loss - rose 149.48 points to close at 16,862.81 and the 50-share NSE Nifty jumped 47.10 points to end at 5,064.30.

Looking at the market's resilience over the last two or three sessions, Mehraboon Irani of Nirmal Bang Securities said it may try to go up to 5,100 or even 5,200 level. According to him, however, 4,700 is a good stoploss.

On the global front, Britain's FTSE gained more than 1 per cent. Among other European markets, France's CAC and Germany's DAX went up 0.5 per cent each. Some Asian markets too showed recovery in late trade - Hang Seng gained 0.5 per cent; Straits Times and Shanghai closed flat.

On the home turf, heavyweight Reliance Industries surged 4 per cent as country head of BP said he was confident of increasing gas production from KG D6. BP took 30 per cent stake in RIL's 21 oil and gas blocks for USD 7.2 billion. "We will set up gas JV with RIL in 2 months. JV will import and sell gas in Indian markets," he said.

Announcement of FPO did not impact ONGC negatively. Generally FPO announcements have met with negative investor sentiments, but this time the stock may have priced in the news's negativity yesterday itself. The company's 42.8-crore shares FPO will open for subscription during September 20-23, 2011. Today the stock gained 1.56 per cent.

Technology, capital goods, cement, private banks, metal and select auto (only 4-wheeler) stocks helped the bounce back. However, the sell-off in Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), power, telecom and realty stocks has limited the upside.

Largecaps like BHEL, Infosys, SAIL, JSPL, L&T, Sterlite, Tata Motors and Maruti closed up 1.5-3 per cent. Ambuja Cements was the biggest gainer; the stock shot up 5 per cent.

TCS, HDFC, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were up over 0.5 per cent.

However, Bharti, NTPC and SBI fell 1-2 per cent. DLF remained top loser; stock lost 4 per cent. ADAG stocks like Reliance Power, Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital and Reliance Infrastructure slipped 1.5-2 per cent.

Midcaps like Hexaware Tech, Educomp Solutions, Polaris, Amtek Auto and GSFC rallied 6-8 per cent. However, HDIL, TV18 Broadcast, Dewan Housing, Federal Bank and HT Media dropped 3 per cent.

Everonn Education continued its downtrend for third consecutive session today. The stock locked at 10 per cent lower circuit after 40 per cent fall in previous two days.

About 830 shares advanced while 591 shares declined on NSE. Total traded turnover was more than Rs 1.25 lakh crore.