Banking stocks rebound, Sensex up 496 points

The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex on Wednesday  rebounded to post a gain of over 495 points on strong buying support in banking and capital goods stocks, which were hammered yesterday.

The 30-share Sensex shed over 550 points yesterday after the central bank announced a hike in short-term lending rate and mandatory amount to be parked with it for banks. The benchmark closed the day at 14,287.21, higher by 495.67 points, after touching the day’s high of 14,322.67.

The banking, capital goods and realty stocks, which were battered in yesterday’s onslaught of selling, made handsome recovery on positive trends in global markets. While the bankex closed higher by 5.21 per cent, realty saw a gain of 5.09 per cent.

Metal was another significant gainer at 4.69 per cent. IT and tech also ended up in the range of over 3 per cent. The National Stock Exchange index Nifty also surged by 123.70 points at 4,313.55. It lost 142.25 points yesterday. Brokers said investors purchased fundamentally strong stocks available at lower levels.