Sensex ends five-day losing streak, up 188 pts

The index posts its biggest daily gain since March 14

The Sensex and the Nifty rebounded on Wednesday from a seven-month closing low to post their first gain in six sessions, as technology shares such as Infosys advanced ahead of their quarterly results while blue-chips such as Larsen & Toubro recovered.

Indexes posted their biggest daily gain in around a month, helped as well by global shares that edged up to their highest level in a week after Chinese trade data pointed to a steady recovery in the world's second largest economy.

However, shares are expected to continue to be weighed down by concerns about foreign investor sales after they sold shares worth a net Rs 662 crore yesterday, bringing their total to Rs 1,725 crore in the previous five sessions, according to provisional exchange data.

"Valuations are driving the market, but there are still no significant buyers, and on top of that, foreign investors are still selling," said Vivek Mahajan, head of research at Aditya Birla Money.

The BSE Sensex rose 1.03 per cent, or 187.97 points, to close at 18,414.45, posting its biggest daily gain since March 14. The index had fallen 4.3 per cent over the previous five sessions.

The Nifty rose 1.16 per cent, or 63.60 points, to close at 5,558.70, posting its biggest daily gain since March 8 after losing 4.4 per cent over the prior five sessions.

Software services exporters gained as previous losses were seen overdone. Infosys gained 1.8 per cent ahead of its fiscal 2013 earnings due on Friday. Larger rival Tata Consultancy Services gained 2.2 per cent.

HCL Technologies rose 3.3 per cent. HCLT could be the only one of India's big four IT stocks to beat January-March earnings consensus forecasts, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine SmartEstimates data, which measures forecasts of only top-ranked analysts. Other blue-chips also gained. Larsen & Toubro shares rose 2.5 per cent. The engineering conglomerate's shares have fallen 5.6 per cent so far this month as of yesterday's close.