BSE Sensex up 95 pts on corporate earnings, FII inflows

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex gained over 95 points on Friday on sustained FII buying in bluechips led by Reliance Industries (RIL) and banking stocks on better than expected third quarter corporate earnings.

The 30-share index of the Bombay Stock Exchange, which had gained 192 points in the previous session, moved up by another 95.27 points to 16,739.01.

Similarly, the 50-issue National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose 30.20 points, or 0.60 per cent to 5,048.60 with.

Brokers said investor confidence improved further as IT major Wipro reported 10.4 per cent rise in profits for the October-December quarter. Wipro rallied 2.38 per cent.


Reliance Industries, the top heavyweight on the Sensex, gained 1.04 per cent ahead of the quarterly earnings results.

Another index heavyweight ICICI Bank, the second-largest private lender, rose 5.81 per cent, while the State Bank of India gained 2.55 per cent.

Market sentiment was supported by gains in Asian stocks amid hopes that the euro-zone debt crisis may be moving towards a resolution, and strong earnings posted by US banks, brokers said.

However, markets in Europe were a little weak in the afternoon as indices in UK, Germany and France were down by up to 0.48 per cent.

Meanwhile, FIIs, the main market movers that have pumped in about $1 billion so far this year in Indian equities, bought shares worth Rs 626.14 crore on Thursday, according to provisional data from the stock exchanges.

The leading Sensex gainers were: ICICI Bank (5.81 per cent), Jindal Steel (3.35 per cent), BHEL (3.09 per cent), Hero Motoco (2.63 per cent), SBI (2.55 per cent), Wipro (2.38 per cent), NTPC (1.72 per cent), DLF (1.66 per cent), ONGC (1.21 per cent), Tata Power (1.16 per cent), Cipla (1.07 per cent), Gail (1.07 per cent) and RIL (1.04 per cent).

However, M&M declined 2.67 per cent, followed by Maruti Suzuki - 2.62 per cent, Hindalco - 1.98 per cent, Coal India - 1.86 per cent and Sterlite - 1.13 per cent.

The total turnover at BSE rose to Rs 2,948.20 crore from Thursday's level of Rs 2,509.13 crore.

- With PTI inputs