Markets remain buoyant; Sensex up 94 points

Mid-cap shares in great demand

Markets shot up by over 200 points in the morning taking positive cues from Asia where indices mirrored robust show by Wall Street overnight. Data showing a major rise in business production and a significant fall in unemployment claims helped US stocks end higher.

Banks and financial stocks on BSE, which were under pressure after the RBI raised provisioning norms for bad debts, surged in early trade. But soon after they came under selling pressure pulling down the Sensex after RBS posted 1.5 billion pounds operations losses for the September quarter. But continuing positive sentiment on PSU shares averted a sharp fall. Hogging the limelight throughout the day, the PSU index rose 3.91 per cent after the government yesterday announced offloading 10 per cent stake in all listed PSUs.

“The market traded in a narrow range. The overall trend is on the upside ... After days of panic selling, the market is in a bounce back mode and moe uptrend is likely,” said Ashika Stock Brokers Research Head Paras Bothra. PSU stocks, led by MMTC, were much in demand. MMTC Ltd, the biggest state-run trading company, hit the daily upper limit of 20 per cent before closing at Rs 36,146.85. The sectoral index jumped 3.91 per cent.

Nifty

The broader Nifty also jumped 30.60 points to close at 4,796.15 from its last close.
As per data available with Sebi, FIIs made investments of more than $ 69 billion so far in the current calendar year.

The mid-cap and small-cap shares remained in great  demand for the second consecutive day. Their respective indices spurted by 2.27 per cent and 2.24 per cent. The market breadth remained strong with 1,944 gainers against 780 losers on the BSE.

The trading volume was high at Rs 6,019.18 crore.