Sensex snaps 6-day losing streak; rebounds smartly by 338 pts

Mumbai, Jan 12 (PTI) Shrugging off low industrialproduction numbers, stock markets today made a smart comebackafter falling for 6 straight sessions, as the BSE benchmarkSensex jumped 338 points on value buying, amid strong cuesfrom global peers.

However, the Bombay Stock Exchange bellwether index,Sensex, showed a highly volatile movement and swung in therange of over 526 points, before settling at 19,534.10, up337.76 points or 1.76 per cent from the previous close.

The National Stock Exchange''s wide-based Nifty also wentup by 109.15 points or 1.90 per cent to settle at 5,863.25.

Experts said that bargain hunting at lower levels helpedthe key indices recover.

"Market was in the oversold territory, which attractedhandsome value buying by retail investors and FIIs despite theIIP data disappointing the street. Besides, the firm overseasmarkets supported the sentiment back home," said Geojit BNPParibas Financial Services Research Head Alex Mathews said.

The 30-share index, which lost over 1,350 points in thelast 6 trading sessions, saw heavy selling after industrialoutput data, IIP, showed just 2.7 per cent growth in November2010, against 11.3 per cent in the year-ago period.

However, it staged an impressive rebound as Europeanstocks rose in early trade.

"Despite poor IIP performance, the cumulative growth forFY''11 so far (April-November) is still around 9.5 per cent,which can improve over the remaining FY11 period. We areexpecting overall IIP for FY11 to register 10-11 per cent YoYgrowth. That would mean the last four months IIP should recordat least 10 per cent YoY growth," MAPE Securities Head ofResearch Kislay Kanth said.

The Street recovered across the board, as barring capitalgoods index, all the other 12 sectoral indices ended on arobust note, with consumer durables leading the gains. Realtyindex gained more than 4 per cent, while the metals and thebanking indices were also among the prominent gainers.

Top private sector lender ICICI Bank extended itsyesterday''s gains and gave a much needed support the tumblingmarkets. The heavy-weight counter advanced by 4.47 per cent,and the rival HDFC Bank also erased its recent losses to endwith a gain of 2.77 per cent.

A significant surge of 1.61 per cent in the country''smost valued firm Reliance Industries also helped thebounce-back on the street.

IT bellwether Infosys Technologies too was up 1.37 percent, in hopes of smart third quarter results, slated to beannounced tomorrow. .