Sensex gains 88 pts after opening in red

Mumbai, Aug 5: The Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) gained 88 points at 14,666, while Nifty was trading with a positive gap of 24 points at 4,419, after opening in the red following the negative cues in Asian markets.

The Sensex rebounded from early lows to edge higher led by banking stocks that gained on fresh demand. HDFC Bank surged 3.28 per cent to Rs 1145.05 on 35,385 shares. It was the top gainer among the Sensex pack. It was followed by ICICI Bank up 1.17 pc to Rs 648 and State Bank of India (SBI) up 1.38 pc to Rs 1530.

Ranbaxy Laboratories was up 1.68 pc to Rs 532.80, whereas Reliance Industries declined 0.45 pc at Rs 2232.30 on 1.59 lakh shares, Tata Steel slipped 2.44 pc to Rs 674.85 on 3.44 lakh shares.

It was the top loser from the Sensex pack. Infosys was down 1.44 pc to Rs 1632 and Wipro declined 1.09 pc to Rs 426.10.

Most Asian markets were trading lower today. Key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea were down between 0.17 pc and 2.23 pc, after the US market ended in the red yesterday.

Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers of equity worth Rs 507.81 crore, while mutual funds net sold Rs 46.97 crore yesterday, according to provisional data on National Stock Exchange (NSE).

FIIs were net sellers of Rs 631.90 crore in the futures&options segment that day. They were net sellers of index futures to the tune of Rs 227.23 crore and sold index options worth Rs 86.38 crore. They were net sellers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 348.99 crore and bought stock options worth Rs 30.70 crore.

UNI