MARKET HALTS 6 DAY LOOSING SPREE

Snapping its six-day losing streak, the benchmark BSE Sensex today surged 359 points to recover from near eight months low to 26,840.50 on value-buying as MSCI deferred inclusion of China A shares in its index. Moreover, rupee's recovery against dollar to Rs 63.78 (intra-day), too boosted sentiment. The Sensex opened on a strong footing at 26,517.32 and continued its upward trend to hit day's high of 26,934.74 on across-the-board value buying in blue-chips. However, due to profit-booking at higher levels, the index slipped at the fag-end and closed 359.25 points or 1.36 per cent higher at 26,840.50. The gauge had lost 1,367.74 points in previous six days. Brokers said apart from value buying, MSCI deferring inclusion of China stocks to its benchmark indices, rather opting to sort out regulatory issues, bolstered trading sentiments. Stocks of BHEL emerged top gainers among 30-Sensex stocks by surging 4.21 per cent to Rs 251.40, followed by Wipro 3.60 per cent to Rs 563.30. The 50-share NSE Nifty halted its seven-session falling trend and reclaimed the 8,100-mark by surging 102.05 points or 1.27 per cent to close at 8,124.45. Other gainers on the Sensex included, Bajaj Auto 3.08 per cent, RIL 2.49 per cent, L&T 2.37 per cent, Tata Power 2.22 per cent, ICICI Bank 1.85 per cent, Infosys 1.69 per cent, TCS 1.72 per cent and Tata Motors 1.40 per cent. Stocks of sugar companies were back in the limelight after the government today approved Rs 6,000 crore interest-free loan to sugar mills to help them clear partly cane price arrears to farmers that has touched about Rs 21,000 crore. Meanwhile, foreign investors sold shares worth Rs 645.02 crore yesterday as per provisional data. Sectorally, the BSE IT gained the most by surging 2.08 per cent, followed by capital goods 2.04 per cent, auto 1.82 per cent, oil&gas 1.33 per cent and bankex 1.26 per cent. Tracking overall trends, broader markets were also in better shape with BSE small-cap index rising 1.11 per cent and mid-cap index gaining 1.08 per cent. Globally, a weak trend was seen in other Asian markets and higher opening in European markets.