Sensex rises 82 pts to break four-day losing streak

 Rising for the first time in five sessions, the benchmark BSE Sensex today rose by 82.50 points to recover from 19-month lows on value-buying in recently beaten-down stocks, led by Tata Motors, RIL and ITC.

For the week, both the indexes recorded steep fall with the Sensex tumbling 1,226.57 points or 4.68 per cent while Nifty tanked by 361.85 points or 4.54 per cent on concerns over the health of Chinese economy and geopolitical tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Asian markets rose with Shanghai index rebounding by 1.97 per cent after authorities suspended a "circuit breaker" system that halted trading in Chinese shares twice this week.

The rupee recovering from a three-week low by rising 33 paise to 66.60 against the dollar (intra-day) also improved the market mood.

The 30-share Sensex opened on a firm note at 24,969.02 and advanced to regain the 25,000-mark to hit a high of 25,083.55 largely supported by rebound in blue-chips.

As profit-booking took hold it gave up part of the early gains and touched a low of 24,887.22 before finally closing the session 82.50 points or 0.33 per cent higher at 24,934.33.

The gauge had lost 1,309.07 points in the previous four sessions on persistent foreign fund outflows and China's central bank lowering its currency yuan against the US dollar amid concerns over a slowing growth.

The broad-based Nifty recaptured the 7600-mark by ending 33.05 points or 0.44 per cent higher at 7,601.35 after shuttling between 7,634.10 and 7,581.05.

However, sentiment remained cautious ahead of quarterly earnings season, which will start with Infosys posting results on Tuesday.

Shares of real estate companies such as HDIL, DLF, Oberoi Realty, Unitech, Phoenix, Indiabulls Real Estate, Godrej Properties and NBCC were in better shape and settled up to 5.76 per cent higher, lifting the sectoral index the most.

Out of 30 Sensex components, 17 ended in the green zone.
Sectorally, realty surged the most by climbing 2.31 per cent, followed by power (2.06%), oil&gas (1.39%), infra (1.25%), IT (1.12%) and consumer durbales (0.85%).

In broader markets, mid-cap and small-cap indices ended 1.32 per cent and 1.24 per cent higher.

Indices in other Asian markets, including those in Hong Kong and Singapore were higher, Shanghai Composite recovered 1.97 per cent. Europe was also showing gains in early trade.