Sensex closes at 13.430.71; up by 1.23 points

Mumbai, Nov 20: The Sensex, which was steeped in the red for a major part of the trading session, underwent a solid intra-day reversal in last minute trading to close at 13,430.71, up by 1.23 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

The Sensex surged to 13,463.06, on the back of strong support from buyers. It had earlier tanked to 13,200.36, under severe selling pressure before it opened low at 13,390.95. Finally, it closed flat at 13,430.71 from its previous day's close of 13,429.48 points.

Meanwhile, BSE METAL Index major crashed by 204.62 points and closed at a low at 8584.93 points, while CG and BANKEX Indices also plummetted by 129.64 points and 129.23 points, repectively, and were quoted at 8650.36 points. PSU index declined sharply by 74.71 and was quoted at 6064.56 points. Finally SML CAP and MID CAP indices also came down by 60.98 and 46.85 points, respectively, and were quoted at 6298.49 points.

However, BSE IT Index shot up sharply by 114.54 to close at 5063.89 points while TECK Index also jumped up by 79.46 points and quoted at 3484.59 points.

Technology stocks, along with Bharti Airtel and a couple of other blue-chips, aided the remarkable bounce back.

The Sensex finally settled at 1.23 points, higher, at 13,430.71.

It had opened weak, at 13,390.95, and started declining since then.

It oscillated 246 odd points for the day.

S&P CNX Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) resumed flat at 3852.65 points. Meanwhile, the day's high was 3866.95 points.

But it came down at 3,794.30 points. Nifty index closed at a low at 3856.15 with a net loss of around four points.

The Nikkei share average dropped to its lowest in a week on Monday, slipping 2.27 per cent as technology stocks followed their US counterparts lower and investors sold Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and other major banks ahead of their earnings results. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index slipped 365.79 points, to 15,725.94. The Hang Seng index lost 228.08 points (1.19 per cent), to 18,954.63.

All European markets were trading with losses. However, the Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 3.20 points, or 0.13 per cent, to close at 2,445.86, brokers said.

UNI