Sensex regains strength, recuperates 93 points in early trade

Mumbai: Domestic bourses got back on their feet in early trade after Friday’s slump as the benchmark Sensex recovered about 93 points driven by a fresh round of buying amid a firming trend in other Asian markets. Besides, persistent buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) too influenced sentiment.

The 30-share index, which had lost 270.78 points in the previous session, was trading higher by 92.83 points, or 0.29 per cent, at 31,617.51 with the sectoral indices led by metal, realty, bank, auto, PSU and capital goods helping the recovery, rising by up to 1.34 per cent.

The 50-share NSE Nifty too was quoting higher by 30.15 points, or 0.30 per cent, at 9,876.55. From the Sensex pack, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, ONGC, M&M, TCS, ITC Ltd, Dr Reddy’s, Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma, Coal India, Wipro, Axis Bank and L&T, rising by up to 1.71 per cent.

Meanwhile, DIIs bought shares worth Rs 584.59 crore on Friday, as per stock exchanges data. Brokers said sentiment turned somewhat better after investors tracked gains in Asia as tensions between the US and North korea have eased and shrugged off weekend losses on Wall Street.

However, Infosys continued its slide and fell by another 2.10 per cent to Rs 903.75 even as the company’s board on Saturday approved the share buyback plan of up to Rs 13,000 crore to reward shareholders. The buyback price of Rs 1,150 per share was nearly 25 per cent higher than Friday’s closing of Rs 923.10 apiece.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.27 per cent while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.16 per cent in early trade on Monday. Shanghai Composite too gained 0.19 per cent. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.35 per cent down in Friday’s trade.

PTI