Bears resting as market rallies

Mumbai: The market staged strong comeback on Thursday after falling for six consecutive sessions. It rebounded to end higher amid value buying and short covering.

Overall the market got consolidated its position with negative bias in 2015, but analysts feel it may not continue similar pattern in 2016. In fact, it has been a great year and got corrected during the year, and the experts see opportune time for building strong long-term portfolio.

Sensex gained 216 points to close at 25,252, Nifty was up 71 points ending at 7,684. The broader market also followed heavyweights with midcap up 0.9 per cent and smallcap gains 1.2 per cent.

The index heavyweight RIL gained 3.7 per cent, followed by HDFC, Infosys, HDFC Bank and ITC all rallying up to 2 per cent. Others which gained included Bajaj Auto, NTPC, GAIL, ONGC and Hindalco gained 1 to 3 per cent, while Lupin, SBI, Tata Motors and M&M declined over 1 per cent.

On sectoral front, energy index gained over 2 per cent followed by metals, IT, Infra FMCG indices posted up around 1 per cent, while pharma and PSU Banks declined.

The gainers: Reliance Industries, up 3.71 per cent at Rs 949.90; Hindalco Industries, up 2.71 per cent at Rs 75.75; Tata Steel, up 2.69 per cent at Rs 232.95; NTPC, up 2.50 per cent at Rs 133.45; and HDFC, up 2.30 per cent at Rs 1,181.10.

The losers: Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), down 1.66 per cent at Rs 1,291.05; Lupin, down 1.42 per cent at Rs 1,736.10; Tata Motors, down 1.18 per cent at Rs 389.30; State Bank of India (SBI), down 1.02 per cent at Rs 231.95; and BHEL, down 0.83 per cent at Rs 167.55.