TMT stocks help Sensex gain 109 points

MUMBAI, OCT. 19. A fresh bout of buying at midsession by local institutions and funds followed by hectic short coverings by operators led the benchmark to bounce back and post a smart gain of 109 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

At the final count, the BSe sensitive index, breaking the four days string of losses, closed up by 109.20 points or 3.04 per cent at 3702.83 against yesterday's close of 3593.63.

A sudden positive turnaround was mainly attributed to a revival in technology, media and telecom (TMT) segments which were battered badly for the last several days.

Local institutions and mutual funds reportedly bought heavily shares of TMT sectors which were lying at attractive levels besides giving support to some index-based old-economy counters. As a result, bear operators rushed to cover their short positions on the penultimate day of current account on the BSE leading to widespread rally in equity values.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index resumed slightly lower at 3576.44 and dropped below 3500-level at 3491.55 following a fall of over 42 points in the techno-laden Nasdaq composite index yesterday. But timely intervention by local institutions pushed up the Sensex to close at the day's high of 3702.83. The BSE-100 index also shot up by 78.68 points to 1881.05 from 1802.37.

Dealers said the Nasdaq futures was quoted up by about 75 points at around noon and also partly boosted the market sentiment as operators started to pick up infotech stocks. Tisco also attracted good buying interest on the company's announcement of impressive rise of 75.9 per cent in its net profit for the second quarter.

In the specified group, 99 counters including 20 index based scrips registered sharp to moderate gains while 37 shares recorded losses. NIIT and Wipro closed at the upper price band of 16 per cent.

The BSE-200 and the Dollex were quoted up at 402.61 and 144.68 against 386.78 and 138.99 respectively.

- PTI

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