Sensex swings both ways before recovering for the day

The Sensex swung over 660 points both ways on alternate bouts of selling and buying before closing the day higher by 97.39 points, or 0.28 per cent. 

In a highly volatile session, value buying by investors in recently-battered banking, oil and gas and auto stocks reversed the three-session losing streak, helping the Sensex and Nifty to close on a positive note on Monday. 

The Sensex swung over 660 points both ways on alternate bouts of selling and buying. 

The 30-share Sensex touched a high of 34,636.43 on the back of sustained buying by domestic institutional investors, but later turned choppy and hit a low of 33,974.66 as selling pressure gathered momentum. 

However, amid buying towards the fag end, it recovered to close the day higher by 97.39 points, or 0.28 per cent, at 34,474.38. 

The 30-scrip gauge had lost 2,149.15 points in the previous three straight sessions. 

The 50-share NSE Nifty too recovered by 31.60 points, or 0.31 per cent, to end at 10,348.05. During the session, it moved between 10,198.40 and 10,398.35. 

Besides value-buying, covering-up of short positions by investors also aided the recovery in the market.   

Top gainers in the Sensex kitty include, Yes Bank climbing 7.08 per cent, followed by RIL at 5.53 per cent. 

Hero MotoCorp also surged 5.14 per cent, Kotak Bank 4.62 per cent, SBI 3.18 per cent, Asian Paint 2.99 per cent, ONGC 1.94 per cent, Bajaj Auto 1.83 per cent, Coal India 1.75 per cent, ICICI Bank 1.35 per cent, Sun Pharma 0.91 per cent, M&M 0.76 per cent, Adani Ports 0.73 per cent, NTPC 0.28 per cent and Maruti Suzuki 0.16 per cent. 

Vedanta emerged as the biggest plunging 10.78 per cent, while HDFC fell 2.62 per cent. 

Other laggards were Wipro, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, ITC, TCS, L&T, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank and PowerGrid, losing up to 2.14 per cent. 

"After remaining highly volatile for the major part of the session, the market reversed to wipe off the day's losses completely on bargain-buying in banking, auto and oil & gas stocks," said Manoj Choraria, a Delhi-based NSE stock broker. 

Optimistic buying ahead of earnings season, which begins this week, also buoyed sentiments to some extent, a broker said. 

Sector-wise, the BSE oil & gas index topped with a rise of 3.30 per cent, followed by bankex 1.16 per cent, PSU (1.13 per cent), auto (0.73 per cent), infrastructure (0.37 per cent), consumer durables (0.37 per cent) and power (0.14 per cent) indices. 

While metal, realty, capital goods, IT and teck indices fell up to 3.18 per cent. 

However, broader markets continued to remain under pressure with the smallcap index falling 1.94 per cent and midcap index losing 1.90 per cent. 

Elsewhere in Asia, most markets ended lower. Shanghai Composite Index slumped 3.72 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.39 per cent, Taiwan lost 0.58 per cent Straits Time fell 0.75 per cent. Financial markets in Japan were shut today for a public holiday. 

European markets too were trading negative in the early session. Frankfurt's DAX was down 0.90 per cent and Paris CAC 40 too lost 0.89 per cent. London's FTSE too shed 0.49 per cent in late morning deals.

Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters.