Sensex continues to rule firm, up 101 points

The BSE benchmark Sensex continued to rule firm for the third straight day today by surging another 101 points in late morning trade on persistent buying in auto, realty, consumer durable and IT sectors on expectations that economic growth would improve in second half of this fiscal.
The government said yesterday that it would increase capital infusion in PSU banks to help them enhance exposure to the auto and consumer durables sectors.
The BSE-30 share index, Sensex, resumed lower at 19,870.00 points and moved down to 19,868.83, but recovered immediately to 20,034.76 before quoting 20,011.14 at 1025 hours.
It showed a gain of 109.07 points or 0.55 per cent from its last close.

The NSE 50-share barometer Nifty also moved up by 32.30 points or 0.55 per cent to 5,942.00 at 1025 hours.
Major gainers were - Tata Motors (4.29 pct), M&M (2.15 pct), Bharti Airtel (1.91 pct), TCS (1.88 pct), Cipla (1.72 pct) and HDFC Bank (1.05 pct).

Asian stocks showed mixed trend in early trade as concern grew that the US political impasse could lead to the government defaulting on its debt, sparking a recession.
Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia fell 0.13 to 0.68 per cent while indices in Taiwan and Singapore rose 0.01 to 0.08 per cent.

US stocks dropped yesterday as investors were worried that a budget stalemate in Congress would become entangled with much more critical legislation to raise the federal borrowing limit.