Sensex regains strength, rises over 150 pts

Mumbai, July 20

Domestic bourses recovered after falling for two straight sessions in early trade on Friday as the benchmark Sensex recovered over 150 points driven by a fresh round of buying ahead of the no-confidence debate in Lok Sabha.

Besides, persistent buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) too influenced sentiment.

The 30-share index, which had lost 168.73 points in the previous two sessions, was trading higher by 158.11 points, or 0.43 per cent, at 36,509.34.

Sectoral indices led by IT, teck, capital goods, auto and banking stocks helped the recovery, rising by up to 1.31 per cent.

The 50-share NSE Nifty reclaimed the 11,000 mark, quoting higher by 43.45 points, or 0.39 per cent, at 11,000.55.

Major gainers in the Sensex pack were ICICI Bank, Infosys, Adani Ports, RIL, L&T, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, Wipro, SBI, TCS, Hero MotoCorp, SunPharma, Maruti Suzuki and ITC, rising up to 2.30 per cent.

Meanwhile, DIIs bought shares worth a net of Rs 470.02 crore on Thursday, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares to the tune of Rs 315.69 crore, as per stock exchanges’ data.

Brokers said expectations of the Modi government winning the first no-confidence motion it’s facing in four years in the Lok Sabha boosted investor sentiment.

However, a weak trend in other Asian markets after China allowed its yuan currency to slide further, forced investors on the domestic bourses to adopt a cautious approach, they added.

Meanwhile, following yuan’s fall, the rupee plunged to record low of 69.12 (intra-day) against the dollar at the forex market on Friday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.12 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.60 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei too fell 0.71 per cent.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.53 per cent down on Thursday. PTI