The Hindu Business Line : Sensex jumps 208 points on FII inflows, heavy buying

Huge FII inflows and aggressive buying in index majors propelled the BSE Sensex by 208.4 points or 1.64 per cent on Friday to end the week at 12,906.81.

NSE S&P CNX Nifty soared by 61.8 points or 1.68 per cent to end at 3,739.35 against the previous close of 3677.55.

Sensex touched an intra-day high of 12,921 as buying accelerated towards the end of the session with gains in the auto, banking, FMCG, and tech sectors. FIIs bought shares worth Rs 109.57 crore going by provisional data on the NSE. Mutual funds also helped the rally, buying shares worth Rs 384.29 crore (as on October 21).

Markets also derived strength on reports that RBI may leave interest rates unchanged, said Mr. Vishwas Aggarwal, a technical analyst with a top broking firm. The BSE Bankex gained 1.33 per cent to 6398.65 points. "The Bankex has been leading the bull run since the crash in May this year", he added.

Among sectoral indices, BSE Oil and Gas index was the largest gainer, up by 168.75 points or 2.9 per cent to close at 5,981.34 points.

Telecom stocks joined the party, on the back of Bharti Airtel's second quarter results, which were way ahead of market expectations. Bharti Airtel gained 4.55 per cent at Rs. 527.3. Reliance Communication (up 4.52 per cent at Rs.384.7) and Reliance Industries (up 4.05 per cent at Rs 1,222.85) were others in the limelight. Stocks of 1,307 companies advanced, 1,196 companies declined while 82 companies remained unchanged at the BSE.

The total volume of business on the NSE was Rs 22,591.37 crore.