Sensex washes out initial losses, rises 125 points

Mumbai, Feb 18 –  Erasing initial losses, the S&P BSE benchmark sensex recovered sharply by 125 points in the late morning trade on Tuesday on fresh buying mainly in banking, metal and auto counters.

 

Good capital inflows from foreign funds boosted the market sentiment as they bought shares worth Rs 522.82 crore yesterday as per the provisional figures issued by the stock exchanges.

 

The Sensex resumed lower at 20,457.56 on initial selling, but recovered immediately to a high of 20,613.79 before quoting at 20,607.98 at 1030hrs, showing a sharp gain of 143.92 points of 0.70 per cent from its last close.

 

The NSE 50-share Nifty also firmed up by 39.50 points or 0.65 per cent to 6,112.80 at 1030hrs.

 

Major gainers were HDFC (1.88 per cent), SBI (1.60 per cent), ICICI Bank (1.56 per cent), Axis Bank (1.54 per cent), Tata Steel (1.49 per cent), HDFC Bank (1.30 per cent), Tata Motors (0.92 per cent) and SSLT (0.82 per cent).

 

Most Asian stocks declined in their early trade as key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea fell by 0.02 per cent to 0.5 per cent and Taiwan and Japan rose 0.03 per cent to 0.92 per cent.

 

PTI, TOI