11:03 am
Jack
MUMBAI : The Sensex rose for the third straight session on Friday, as risk appetite returned globally on hopes policymakers will come up with more actions to combat the European debt crisis, helping investors shrug off a rate increase by the Reserve Bank of India. The outlook for local stocks, however, remained cautious as RBI stuck to its hawkish stance.
The central bank lifted its policy lending rate by 25 basis points, in line with expectations. The main 30-share BSE index closed up 0.34%, or 57.29 points at 16,933.83, with 13 of its components ending higher. The BSE Sensex ended the week 0.4% higher , their third straight weekly gain, after falling for five consecutive weeks.
The index has fallen 17.4% since the start of 2011. Interest rate sensitive indices such as banking and real estate slipped into the red immediately after the rate action at noon. Both the BSE banking index and the real estate index recouped losses to end 0.59% and 1.26% higher, respectively .
The banking index has dropped 13% over the past two months. SBI rose 2.51%, while ICICI Bank closed up 0.88%. Tata Motors gained 7% after global sales of its Jaguar Land Rover rose 31% in August. State-run explorer ONGC closed 5.4% higher after it said it has deferred a follow-on share sale. The 50-share NSE index closed up 0.17% at 5,084.25 points. In the broader market, there were almost 1.2 losing stocks for every gainer. Volume was relatively strong at 795.5 million shares.
