Sensex goes up by 51 points

After six sessions of continued losses, the markets bounced back smartly on Tuesday following renewed buying in both the new and old economy stocks by a host of bargain hunters. Leading the recovery were the heavyweights like Reliance Industries and Hindustan Lever. The 30-share Sensitive Index finally ended with a gain of 50.82 points to 2,885.83 while the Nifty was up 14.21 points to end at 936.90.

Brokers attributed fresh buying spree to hectic purchases by some foreign funds in RIL, HLL and a few others rather than the reduction in the bank rate and cash reserve ratio by 25 basis point each, which is little lower than the market expectations of 50 basis point, by RBI.

Sensex had dipped to its new 52-week low of 2,828.48 in intra-day trades on Monday. Buying was witnessed in select PSU stocks on hopes of a revival in the government’s disinvestment programme. Reliance was up 5.08 per cent to Rs 230.45 on reports that the company has struck a huge gas reserve in Andhra Pradesh. The RIL stock had touched its 52-week low of Rs 218.05 on Monday. Foreign funds also were net buyers in IT counters like NIIT which initially suffered a sharp setback, Satyam Computer, Infosys Tech and others, said a broker. HLL was up 3.30% to Rs 157.85 strode higher on bargain hunting after the stock touched a new four-year low of Rs 152 on Monday.