Sensex bounces back by 249.86 pts

MUMBAI: The Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange today zoomed up by 249.86 points to 18,403.85 as buying was seen across the board along with fi rm Asian Markets. The Nifty of National Stock Exchange (NSE) advanced by 73.40 points to 5595.35. The Sensex recorded intra day high and low at 18,423.06 and 18,302.97 points respectively. The Nifty registered intra day high and low at 5606.70 and 5567.20 points respectively. Wall Street rallied, with the Nasdaq hitting its highest in a decade. The Dow Jones added 123 points or 1 per cent to 12904. Nasdaq was up 1.55 points at 2960. In Asia, Nikkei jumped 1.8 per cent to 9,404. Hang Seng was up by 1 per cent. BSE realty index surged 2.5 per cent to 2,115. The capital goods, power and consumer durables indices have added 2 per cent each. Bhel has jumped 4 per cent to Rs 296. From the metal pack, Sterlite and Tata Steel have advanced 2-3 per cent each. Other gainers include SBI, Larsen & TOubro, Tata Motors and ICICI Bank. Meanwhile, Maruti Suzuki dropped by 0.6 per cent at Rs 1,348. ITC is unchanged at Rs 204. The company has bought 4.6% stake in Hotel Leela Russell Credit. Magma Fincorp rose by 4 per cent to Rs 73 on news that the company plans to enter the gold fi nance business in the fi rst half of the next fi scal. The gainers were BHEL by 11.99 per cent to Rs 319, L & T by 4.70 per cent to Rs 1515, Sterlite Industries by 4.07 per cent to Rs 134.40, SBI by 3.75 per cent to Rs 2437, DLF by 3.63 per cent to Rs 258.50, Coal India by 3.43 per cent to Rs 332, Tata Power by 3.22 per cent to Rs 117 and NTPC by 3.05 per cent to Rs 109. The losers were Hero MotoCorp by 1.48 per cent to Rs 2156, Bajaj Auto by 0.96 per cent to Rs 1795.30 and Cipla by 0.86 per cent to Rs 322.65.