Sensex up by 464.20 points

Mumbai, Nov 21: Ending the seven session losing streak, the benchmark Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Friday, Nov 21 rallied by 464.20 points to end in green at 8915.21 on short covering and firm advice from global markets.

Short covering in heavyweights and positive global markets lifted the benchmark indices higher. The Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) hit 2700 mark in late trade, but did not manage to close above the same level. Huge buying was seen in power, oil&gas, capital goods, banking, telecom and technology stocks, a leading broker said. On the global front, European markets were witnessing buying interest. FTSE was up 63.01 points or 1.63 per cent to 3,938. CAC jumped up by 38.33 points or 1.29 pc to 3,018.75. DAX rose 62.74 points or 1.49 pc to 4,282.94. The Dow Jones Futures was up by 293 points or 3.99 pc to 7,780 and the Nasdaq Futures gained 37.5 points or 3.61 pc at 1,077. Asian markets bounced back from five-year lows.

Hang Seng and Straits Times closed with gain of 3 pc. Kospi surged by 5.8 pc and Nikkei and Taiwan gained 2.7 pc and 1.98 pc, respectively.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said India will emerge strong from the global economic crisis and the government will ensure that the shortage of demand from the global slowdown is neutralised to the maximum possible extent through the use of fiscal and monetary policies and public investment.

The Sensex resumed low at 8,446.74 points, after hitting an intraday high of 8,988.03. The 50-share NSE Nifty shut shop at 2693.45, down 5.50 per cent or 140.30 points over the previous close of 2553.15. It hit a high of 2718.60.

The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 3,562 crore today as compared to a turnover of Rs 2,899.59 on November 20. Volumes were very high in today's trade, total turnover traded stood at Rs 60,733.85 crore.

This includes Rs 9,467.69 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 47,696.14 crore from NSE F &O and the balance Rs 3,570.02 crore from BSE Cash segment. Market breadth was weak throughout the session with about 1282 shares advancing while 1487 shares declined. Nearly 426 shares remained unchanged.

UNI