Sensex, Nifty wipe off early losses on value-buying

Mumbai: Wiping off early losses, benchmark indices rebounded to trade in the positive zone in late morning trade on Monday as banking, oil and gas, auto, healthcare and FMCG shares witnessed fresh spells of buying and short-covering by investors.

The BSE Sensex was trading higher by 118.92 points, or 0.35 per cent, at 34,495.91 at 1125 hrs. The gauge had touched a low of 34,031.98 points in early trade. In the previous three sessions the gauge had plunged by 2,149.15 points. The broader Nifty also reclaimed the 10,300-mark by recovering 40.25 points, or 0.39 per cent, to 10,356.70.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,902.07 crore on Friday, provisional data showed. Yes Bank emerged top Sensex gainer by rising 4.63 per cent, followed by RIL gaining 4.08 per cent. Other gainers include, Hero MotoCorp, Coal India, SBI, Asian Paints, Kotak Bank, ONGC, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, ITC, Infosys, Sun Pharma and Adani Ports, rising up to 3.31 per cent.

In the auto space, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and M&M, too, were in keen demand largely on the back of encouraging sales data for September and gained up to 1.51 per cent. The BSE oil and gas index gained the most by surging 2.86 per cent, while PSU index rose 1.20 per cent. Bankex, infrastructure, auto, FMCG, healthcare, capital goods, too, were trading in the positive terrain, rising up to 0.87 per cent.

Meanwhile, foreign investors pulled out over Rs 9,300 crore (USD 1.3 billion) from the Indian capital market in the last four trading sessions. Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 51.30 points, and Singapore benchmark SGX shed 21.80 points. Chinese markets which opened after a long holiday were also down, with Shanghai Composite Index and Taiwan trading lower.