Discarding weak Asian advices and negative inflation trends, the markets came alive, on Friday, with the benchmark Sensex posting a gain of over 400 points, the biggest since the Budget day, as select heavyweight stocks surged.

Traders noted that markets shrugged off all concerns and rebounded as if to prove the doomsayers who had a field day, on Friday, when the markets plunged to a six-and-a half month low predicting worse days ahead.
The 30-share Sensex on the Bombay Stock Exchange settled the day at 15,760.52 points, a rise of 403.17 points. The 50-share Nifty the National Stock Exchange also recouped smartly by 122.20 points to 4,745.80 from Thursday’s close of 4,623.60.

Most of the other Asian markets ended in negative terrain after resuming high. Wall Street recovered on Thursday after Standard & Poor’s statement that the end of write-downs was now in sight for large financial institutions. Those heavyweight stock which were battered on Thursday made a strong comeback. However, market breadth remained negative, indicating lack of retail participation.

Market sentiment
Marketmen said a statement by the Finance Minister that he expects the economy to maintain growth levels above 8.5 per cent in the coming years and the recent turmoil is the only reflection of the global debacle, boosted the market sentiment.

However, some market participants remained concerned. They said the latest industrial growth data, higher global crude oil prices, lingering worries about the US recession and inflation rate spiralling upwards do not augur well.

Among the index gainers, Reliance Energy was the best performer with a gain of 8.26 per cent. Bharti Airtel and M&M were the prominent losers at 3.27 per cent and 1.75 per cent respectively.

The market breadth was negative with 1,458 shares registering losses against 1,214 ending with gains. The trading volume declined further to Rs 5,914.99 crore from Rs 6,134.02 crore on Thursday.