Sensex snaps 3-day fall, Nifty above 8350 as SBI, ONGC rise

The benchmark Sensex today recovered from over one-month lows and rose 34.09 points to end at 27,831.10, snapping a three-day fall, helped by gains in bluechips, including SBI, ONGC and Tata Power, on value-buying and positive cues from European markets.

In volatile movements, the BSE Sensex resumed lower and slipped further to hit the day's low of 27,710.03 as investors grappled with effects of tougher Chinese rules on lending and political instability concerns in Greece.

However, emergence of buying in afternoon trade helped Sensex wipe off initial losses to close higher at 27,831.10, logging a rise of 34.09 points, or 0.12 per cent. The Sensex had lost 765.81 points in the previous three sessions.

Among the 30-Sensex pack, 13 constituents led by SBI, ONGC, Tata Power, Tata Motors, Cipla, Dr Reddy, Hero MotoCorp, Sesa Sterlite, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, NTPC, ITC Ltd and Axis Bank ended higher, helping Sensex to end in the green.

Fall in BHEL, GAIL, Hind Unilever, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, Wipro, L&T, RIL, TCS, Coal India, HDFC Ltd, Hindalco, M&M and Maruti Suzuki shares, however, weighed.

Shares of Bharti Airtel, which gained over 2 per cent in early trade after telecom tribunal TDSAT set aside Rs 650 crore penalty imposed by the DoT, succumbed to profit-booking towards the close and ended 0.16 per cent lower.

The broad-based 50-issue CNX Nifty of the NSE also recovered by 14.95 points, or 0.18 per cent, to end above the 8,350-mark at 8,355.65.

Second-line shares were also back in form on a fresh spell of buying support from retail investors.

Shares in jewellery makers surged on speculation that the government may announce changes to gold-import rules for trading houses. Gitanjali Gems gained 8.53 per cent, TBZ 4.46 per cent, PC Jeweller 2.31 per cent and Titan 3.99 per cent.

The BSE-Midcap and BSE-Smallcap indices closed up by 0.93 per cent and 1.06 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors sold shares worth net Rs 221.52 crore yesterday as per provisional data.