Sensex hovers near 12,000 mark, touches 11,999 in afternoon trade

Mumbai, Apr 20 (UNI) The Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE made another attempt at climbing the 12,000 mark as it rose to 11,999 this afternoon, gaining 105 points as compared to its last close of 11,895.

Sensex opened with a gain of 46 points at 11,941 as compared to the last close of 11,895 and then had a volatile session so far due to rising crude price and sell out by foreign institutional investors.

However, Reliance Industries was pushing Sensex towards the 12,000 mark. The scrip was up by 3.17 per cent at Rs 950 on expectations on the good fourth quarter results and oil discovery in Godavari basin.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty index traded 25 points up at 3,560 points at 1347 hrs.

Oil&Gas giant ONGC too was up 0.90 per cent at Rs 1,340 this afternoon.

Other gainers on Sensex were Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Grasim Industries, Bajaj Auto, Maruti, ONGC, Satyam Computers and Tata Power.

The losers were HDFC, NTPC, Cipla, TCS, Ranbaxy, Bharti Tele, Hero Honda, Infosys Technologies, Hindustan Lever and Reliance Energy.

Foreign fund outflow of Rs 273.90 crore, as reported by the SEBI on Tuesday when Sensex gained 281 points, may hurt investors' sentiment.

Record high crude oil price at USD 73-72 per barrel was also hurting market sentiments.

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