Sensex recovers 22 pts on late buying; Fed meet outcome eyed

Reversing early losses, the S&P BSE benchmark Sensex today closed 22 points higher on fag-end buying in bluechips including Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank and RIL amid investors awaiting the outcome of the two-day Federal Reserve meeting in the US.

Sensex, which had lost 102.59 points in yesterday's trade, recovered by 22.42 points, or 0.12 per cent, to close at 19,245.70 points. It had moved between 19,100.13 and 19,274.26 due to volatile movements in index-heavy stocks.

Besides, a higher opening in the European market ahead of the US Federal Reserve policy outcome tonight, also influenced the trading sentiments to some extent here, brokers said.

"FII selling in the bonds segment has led to Rupee weakening to record low levels above 58 level. This along with profit-booking due to lack of any positive triggers, market is facing resistance at higher levels," said Nidhi Saraswat, Senior Research Analyst,Bonanza Portfolio Limited.

On similar lines, the wide-based NSE index Nifty ended 8.65 points, or 0.15 per cent higher at 5,822.25,. It had dipped below 5,800 points level to touch session's low of 5,777.90 in early trade. Also, SX40, the flagship index of MCX-SX, closed 14.04 points higher at 11,427.07.

In the 30-share Sensex pack, 15 stocks led by HDFC Ltd, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Sterlite Industries and Hindalco gained. However, Infosys, TCS, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors and Sun Pharma ended in negative territory.

Shares of telecom companies remained in demand after regulator Trai decided not to make roaming services completely free of charge. Bharti Airtel rose 2.83 per cent, Rcom gained 2.38 per cent and Idea Cellular jumped 4.52 per cent.

RIL saw buying support from funds as well as retail investors and gained 0.91 per cent to Rs 831.10.

Outside of major benchmark indices, shares of IDFC caught investors' fancy and gained 0.94 per cent after the company's board has approved a proposal to seek licence from RBI for setting up a bank. Religare Enterprises, however, ended flat.

The BSE consumer durables sector index gained the most among sectoral indices, rising 1.96 per cent, followed by Metal 1.28 per cent and realty 0.58 per cent.