JOIN USThe Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index Sensex shot up 265.39 points or 1.46 per cent to finish at 18,439.48. It had lost 295 points in the last two sessions. Similarly, the NSE 50-share Nifty moved up 86.05 points or 1.58 per cent to end at 5,531.50.
Oil prices fell below US$100 a barrel in the US on reports that the earthquake in Japan would slow down demand for the time being and stem inflationary pressures globally. The markets remained on a firm footing through the day, also because of anticipations regarding on the government’s advance tax collections, to be released on March 15, as also RBI’s mid-quarterly policy review, due on March 17. All 13 sectoral indices on the BSE logged gains. The popular Sensex at BSE was up 265.39 points or 1.46 per cent to close at 18,439.48, its highest closing since March 9, 2011. It fell 18.66 points at the day’s low and rose 289.75 points at the day’s high in late trade.
Market breadth
The 50-unit S&P CNX Nifty at NSE was up 86.05 points or 1.58 per cent to settle at 5,531.50 in the day’s closing, its highest closing since March 4, 2011. It swung between high of 5,537.30 and low of 5,434.25 during the day. The BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.49 per cent to 6,561.48 and the BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.26 per cent to 7,920.72, both underperforming the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the health of the market, turned positive on BSE after oscillating between negative and positive throughout in the day with as many as 1,517 shares advanced and 1,378 shares declined and a total of 142 shares remained unchanged. The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 2968 crore, lower than Friday’s turnover of Rs 3639 crore.