Sensex rises 124 pts; metal, realty shares in limelight

Snapping two-day losing streak, the BSE benchmark Sensex today rose over 124 points on emergence of buying support amid rupee gaining strength and global markets witnessing positive trends.
The Sensex gained today 124.46 points, or 0.67 per cent, to close at 18,789.34, led by metal, realty and power sectors. It had lost over 517 points in the previous two sessions.
Of 30 Sensex stocks, 21 stocks gained, including by Tata Steel, Infosys, TCS, Cipla, Bharti Airtel, BHEL, Coal India, HDFC Bank, Hindalco Industries, Jindal Steel, Sterlite Industries and Tata Power.
The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose today by 46.55 points, or 0.84 per cent, to end at 5,565.65.

SX40 index, the flagship index of MCX-SX, closed at 11153.85, up 81.09 points, or 0.73 per cent.
Brokers said investors covering pending positions before a long weekend and buying in fundamentally stocks available at attractive levels mainly pushed up the market.

The firming rupee and better trend in global markets further supported the uptrend, they added.
Shares of drug major Ranbaxy Laboratories jumped 27.49 per cent to Rs 359.50. The the company had narrowed net loss for the second quarter of the fiscal.
Recent losers in auto and realty sectors were back in demand at prevailing lower levels. Maruti Suzuki spurted 3.89 per cent, followed by Mahindra and Mahindra (2.42 per cent), Bajaj Auto (0.34 per cent) and Hero MotoCorp (1.14 per cent).

The auto sector index gained 1.38 per cent to 10,215.33.
The metal sector index gained the most by rising 2.61 per cent to 6,855.54, followed by realty (2.35 per cent), power (1.42 per ent) and Tech (0.90 per cent).
The BSE will remain closed tomorrow for 'Id-ul Fitr'.