Sensex up by 142 points on seventh day of rise; metal shares lead rally

Mumbai: Surging for the seventh straightsession, the benchmark Sensex gained over 142 points to close at 29,462.27 today boosted by sharp rise in metal shares after some firms won mines in ongoing coal block auction. Stocks of Jindal Steel Power zoomed over 25 per cent.

Hindalco, Tata Power, Tata Steel and Sesa Sterlite rose in the range of 2-7 per cent. Rate-sensitive capital goods and realty shares also saw buying on hopes of rate cuts as inflation slowed. Participants continue to bet on a growth-oriented budget, brokers said. In volatile movements, the 30-share BSE Sensex opened on a strong footing but succumbed to profit booking and stayed in the negative zone for a major part of the session. It hit the day's low of 29,108.15.

However, a flurry of buying in the last 90 minutes boosted share prices and helped the Sensex rebound and hit a high of 29,522.86 before closing at 29,462.27, a net gain of 142.01 points, or 0.48 per cent. The bluechip gauge has now garnered 1,234.85 points in the seven straight sessions and is at three-week high levels."Today's market activity was the best example of volatility ahead of the budget. Our domestic news flow has also turned positive in terms of strong response to bidding of coal blocks," said Kotak Securities, head - Technical Research, Shrikant Chouhan.

The wide-based NSE Nifty index rose by 26.20 points, or 0.30 per cent, to close at 8,895.30. Intra-day, it moved between 8,794.45 and 8,913.45. As many as 20 of the 30 Sensex stocks closed with gains. In the broader market, jewellery stocks such as PC Jeweller, Gitanjali Gems, Tribhuvandas Bhimji and Titan caught buyers' fancy after RBI relaxed gold import norms. Sectorwise, Metal index rose by 3.82 per cent, followed by the Capital Goods (1.36 per cent), Realty (1.06 per cent), Power (0.86 per cent) and IT (0.79 per cent) among others. Buying activity gathered momentum in small and mid-cap sector stocks as well.

The BSE Smallcap index edged up by 0.10 per cent and midcap index gained 0.04 per cent. Foreigners bought shares worth a net Rs 2,187.96 crore yesterday as per provisional data from bourses.