Sensex closes firm at 19,247.54 pts, up by 394.67 pts

Mumbai, Nov 26: The Sensex today closed higher on the Bombay Stock Exchange at 19,247.54 with a big gain of 394.67 points on heavy speculative demand from Foreign Institutional Investors (FII's) and domestic financial institutional investors.

Last Friday's US rally boosted stocks across Asia and European markets. In Europe, key indices in France, Germany and United Kingdom were up by between 0.40 pc to 0.55 pc.

In Asia, key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan were up by between 2.23 pc to 4.65 pc.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped by 181.84 points, or 1.42 pc, to close at 12,980.88 on last Friday. The Standard&Poor's 500 Index gained by 23.93 points, or 1.69 pc to finish at 1,440.70. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced by 34.45 points, or 1.34 pc, to end at 2,596.60, which helped to boost Indian bourses.

FII sales caused by redemption pressure in their home countries and fears of a US recession arising from housing slump and credit crisis had spooked stocks across Asian over the past few days.

The market ended on a firm note led by gains in index heavyweights. HDFC Bank soared and Tata Steel moved up. Metal, power and capital goods stocks were at the forefront of the market rally.

European markets, which opened after Indian markets, were in green and Asian markets were firm.

The 30-share BSE Sensex resumed higher at 19,171.25 points. Sensex hit a low of 19,137.66 in afternoon trade. At day's low, Sensex was up 284.79 points for the day. Sensex hit a high of 19,360.23 in mid-morning trade. At day's high of 19,360.23, Sensex had risen 507.36 points from its last close.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE ended up by 123.10 points or 2.19 pc to 5731.70, before it opened high at 5611.30 from its last close of 5608.60 points. The Nifty index recorded a high at 5772.55 and a low at 5608.95 points in intra day trade.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up by 2.01 pc to 8,394, while the BSE Small-Cap index rose by 1.76 pc to 10,350.81, brokers added.

HDFC bank was up by 5.27 pc to Rs 1645, Tata Steel gained by 4.10 pc to Rs 854.10, Bharti Airtel rose by 4.02 pc to Rs 950.20, Hindalco Industries was up by 3.70 pc to Rs 195 and Reliance Energy went up by 3.40 pc to Rs 1783.70.

India's largest private sector firm and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose by 2.37 pc to Rs 2878. ICICI Bank, country's biggest private sector bank in terms of net profit, rose by 1.01 pc to Rs 1151.90. Infosys Technologies gained by 1.16 pc to Rs 1576.

The largest commercial lender State Bank of India fell by 0.99 pc to Rs 222.9 and Tata Motors slipped by 0.23 pc to Rs 713.

UNI