Date:27/04/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/04/27/stories/2006042705281900.htm

Business

Sensex up 292 points

MUMBAI: Snapping a three-day losing streak, the Sensex added 292 points on Wednesday, as encouraging quarterly results by Maruti and fall in world oil prices brought investors back to the market. The BSE 30-share index rallied sharply throughout, flaring up to the day's high of 11965.09 before closing at 11938.53 against 11646.78 on Tuesday, a net gain of 291.75 points or 2.5 per cent.

Operators went on a buying spree in a bid to cover short positions in the futures segment and mutual funds made heavy purchases, even as foreign funds preferred to go slow on investments in equity. Even as crude oil prices and corporate earnings were expected to impact the market, outstanding earnings announced so far by over 50 corporates and robust economic growth continued to influence investors, analysts said.

Retail traders covered short positions in metal and oil stocks, which were battered in the two-day meltdown, in view of the expiry of futures contract on Thursday. Heavyweight counters such as Reliance, ONGC, Infosys Technologies, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, HDFC, Grasim, Maruti Udyog and BHEL were among the top gainers. The volume of business remained low at Rs. 4,703.85 crore but up from Rs 4,587.75 crore on Tuesday. — PTI