Sensex recovers 155 points in late morning trade

Mumbai: The BSE benchmark Sensex recovered 155 points to quote at 29,787 in post noon trade as fresh buying by investors led to widespread gains ahead of the earnings season. Domestic bourses bucked the weak trend witnessed in most of the Asian markets.

Sectoral indices such as IT, technology, telecom, refinery and power witnessed robust buying. IT major Infosys rose 1.48 per cent. The company will release its Q4 results on Thursday.

The 30-share index resumed higher at 29,630.06 and hovered in a range of 29,787.05 and 29,570.58 before quoting at 29,730.47 at 1234 hours, showing a gain of 154.73 points or 0.52 per cent. The gauge had dropped by 398.50 points of 1.33 per cent in previous three days.

The NSE Nifty also moved up by 35.40 points or 0.39 per cent to quote at 9,216.85 at 1234 hours. Major gainers were ITC 1.74 per cent, Infosys 1.48 per cent, HDFC 1.16 per cent, Wipro 1.05 per cent and ICICI Bank 0.94 per cent.

Overseas, Asian stocks declined as rising tensions in the Middle East and political uncertainty in Europe kept investors on edge, underpinning safe assets such as the yen, gold and treasuries.

US stocks closed fractionally higher yesterday amid geopolitical tensions, while investors looked ahead to the start of earnings season. Meanwhile, the foreign funds sold net Rs 716.19 crores yesterday, as per the provisional figure issued by stock exchanges.