Sensex snaps 2-day falling steak on selective buying;up 22 pts

Mumbai, Jan 17 (PTI) In a volatile trade, the BSEbenchmark Sensex today snapped its two-day falling streak byrising 22 points to over 18,882 as investors opted forselective buying in fundamentally strong shares.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index Sensex, whichhad lost 675 points in last two trading sessions, gained 21.81points to 18,882.25, led by software exporting stocks on thespeculation of improved earnings.

However, every rise in the market was capped on profitbooking.

A weak trend in the Asian region and lower opening inEurope also influenced the trading sentiment.

As the market turned volatile, Sensex moved widelybetween the 19,018.94 and 18,779.38 range, before settlingwith moderate gains. The gauge dropped 9.9 per cent from itspeak level set on November 5 amid concerns that the RBI mightraise interest rates an its meeting next week to curbinflation.

The National Stock Exchange index Nifty settled almostflat by easing 0.20 point to 5,654.75, after moving between5,696.15 and 5,624.15.

Buying in IT stocks on expectations a recovery in globaleconomy helped the market to edge up. Tata ConsultancyServices, the biggest software services exporter, gained 1.74per cent to Rs 1,138.15 before its earnings report later todayand Infosys Technologies advanced 2.06 per cent to Rs3,267.95.

Indian IT companies get more than 50 per cent of theirrevenues from the US and European markets.

The IT sector index gained the most by 1.73 per cent to6,550.19 followed by Tech index, up 1.33 per cent at 3,865.16.

Consumer durable index rose by 0.25 per cent to 5,972.23.

As the selling activity spilled over a wide-front, thesmallcap index fell by 1.40 per cent to 8,868.15 and midcapindex by 1.39 per cent to 7,123.19.