Sensex recovers, rises 68 points to 17,198

The Indian bourses ended in the green, aided by rising FMCG, oil and public sector undertakings’ (PSUs) stocks.

The Sensex opened in the negative territory at 17,149.08, tracking subdued cues from the US markets. US markets slipped on Tuesday, as the Gross Domestic Product figures were revised for the third quarter, even as the Federal Reserve raised its growth expectations for 2010. The Dow slipped 17 points to 10,434. The Nasdaq was slightly down, by seven points, at 2,169.

The index rebounded immediately to touch an intra-day high of 17,290.48. The markets retraced some of their gains in the afternoon session as a result of volatility ahead of the derivatives’ series expiry, but still managed to close well above the dotted line. The Sensex ended at 17,198.95, up 67.87. The NSE Nifty settled at 5,108.15, up 17.60 points.

Reliance Industries contributed 19 points, followed by ITC (18 points) and HDFC Bank (13 points) to the Sensex’s gains.

Among the sectoral indices, FMCG and the Oil & Gas index added 1.44 per cent and 1.09 percent, respectively. The realty index, on the other hand, slipped 2.93 per cent.

At the BSE, Hero Honda led the list of gainers, up 2.24 per cent. ITC (1.93 per cent), Hindustan Unilever (1.75 per cent), HDFC Bank (1.46 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (1.34 per cent) and ACC (1.29 per cent) were the other prominent gainers.

DLF is the major loser on the BSE, down 2.91 per cent. Reliance Communications and Jaiprakash Associates were down over a per cent each.

The market breadth was negative. Of 2,848 shares traded, 1,484 declined and 1,289 advanced on the BSE.

Mahindra Satyam topped the value chart on the BSE, with a turnover of Rs 314.32 crore, and Cals Refineries topped the volume chart with trades of 45.60 million shares.

‘’The markets will remain choppy, with lots of opportunity’’, said Gul Tekchandani, investment consultant.