Recovery rally continues; Sensex closes 104 points up (Third Lead)

Despite firming up of inflationary trends and subdued exports, the recovery rally in the Indian equity markets continued on Tuesday, with a barometer index provisionally closing with gains of 104 points or 0.41 percent.

Value buying, strengthening rupee and recent reform announcements restored investor confidence and supported the recovery rally which started on Monday.

The positive cues dispelled negative bias that had set in on account of hardening of inflation trend in October and subdued exports performance.

In addition, international volatility after the Paris terror attacks, electoral setback for the central government in Bihar and heightened chances of a US rate hike had dented buying sentiments during the recent trading sessions.

Nevertheless, attractive stock prices, recent reforms to hike foreign direct investment (FDI) limits in various sectors and hopes on goods and services tax (GST) bill getting passed during the upcoming winter session of parliament brought back investors.

Initially, both the bellwether indices opened higher in sync with their Asian peers and in line with positive close for both the US and European exchanges on Monday.

On Tuesday, the wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) made gains during the day's trade. It provisionally closed higher by 24.65 points or 0.32 percent at 7,831.25 points.

Similarly, the barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) provisionally closed in the positive territory.

The S&P BSE Sensex, which opened at 25,897.88 points, provisionally closed at 25,864.47 points (at 3.30 p.m.), up 104.37 points or 0.41 percent from the previous day's close at 25,760.10 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 25,948.20 points and a low of 25,732.79 points during the intra-day trade.