Special trading session brings relief

It was a short session of trade, but one that would have soothed many a frayed nerve atleast for the time-being. The Sensex rebounded by 124 points to 15915 and the Nifty ended higher by 48 points at 4766. The hitherto battered realty, metal and energy sectors saw buying interest at lower levels.

Global factors undoubtedly played a part, with the Wall Street  arresting its recent decline to end marginally higher overnight as the US unemployment rates fell to five-month lows.

The Sensex had shaved off more than 700 points in the last two days as investors worldwide scurried for cover in the face of a rise in initial jobless claims in the US and credit default concerns in Europe.

Hindalco advanced 2.3% at Rs 141, Jaiprakash Associates strengthened by 2.2% at Rs 128 and Sterlite added 1.7% to Rs 479, on the BSE. DLF, Infosys and Tata Steel were the other prominent gainers. And index heavyweight Reliance added 1.2% at Rs 993.

On the other hand, Hero Honda and Bharti Airtel were marginally down at Rs 1582 and Rs 300 respectively.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 2583 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1931 advancing stocks as against 607 declines.

Essar Oil topped the value charts on the BSE with a total turnover of Rs 25.26 crore. This was followed by Reliance (Rs 21.46 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 16.23 crore), SBI (Rs 15.45 crore) and HDIL (Rs 13.91 crore).

IFCI led the volume charts with trades of 1.96 million. It was followed by Essar Oil (1.79 million), Suzlon (1.58 million), Unitech (1.25 million) and Ispat (1.16 million).

The markets were open for 90 minutes to enable the NSE to test its upgraded market trading system.