Markets end with marginal gains

Mumbai, Mar 12 (UNI) The Sensex today registered a marginal gain of 17.64 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange to close at 12,902.63 with the Foreign Institutional Investors (FII's) resuming buying and the Asian markets ending significantly higher.

''The markets started on a tame note but picked up steam during intra-day when the Sensex crossed the psychological barrier of 13,000 to reach the day's high at 13,056.86 points. However, it pared a sizable part of the gains during the closing hour after recording the day's low of 12,844.99 points,'' a market analyst observed.

The market-breadth was strong today. Against 1,543 shares rising on BSE, 1,032 declined. Just 52 shares were unchanged. Gainers outpaced losers by a ratio of 1.49:1. The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 3395 crore.

''FIIs have resumed buying since the past three days after selling heavily since late-February 2007. But, Mutual funds are sitting on cash, thanks to collections from some of the recent new fund offers, and may step up purchases at declines,'' brokers said.

Among the broader markets, the Nifty Index too made a modest gain of 16.60 points on the NSE to close at 3734.60 from its previous close of 3718.00 points.

The share markets in the Asia-Pacific continued their surge today, after the recent slide as US jobs data reassured investors about the health of the world's biggest economy.

Besides, key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and Japan were up between 0.5 - 1.6 per cent.

The US economy added 97,000 jobs in February, slightly below expectations, but jobs growth for previous months was revised up and the unemployment rate fell.

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