Sensex reaches 9066 on muhurat trading

29 October 2008

Mumbai: The festival of Diwali seems to have brought some cheer to Dalal Street with the hour-long Muhurat trading session on Tuesday evening, which marked the first day of Samvat Year 2065, the new year for the dominant Gujarati trading community in the bourse, saw the BSE Sensex rally strongly, ending higher by 499 points at 9,008.

All the 30 Sensex stocks ended higher, with the top five ending with more than a 10-per cent gain.

Amongst other rituals, the trading community buys stocks on the auspicious day of Diwali. Institutional traders were largely absent from the Mahurat trade, as it was a holiday for most of them.

The 6-per cent rally reassured investors somewhat, giving them small reason to cheer amid the months of battering that stocks have taken on account of the global economic slowdown.

Some traders expressed optimism saying that the rally indicated that the existing volatility in the markets would end in about a fortnight, and the recovery, long-drawn as it may turn out to be, would commence.

Mahindra & Mahindra gained the maximum with 12.7 per cent jump at Rs279, followed by Jaiprakash Associates at 11.5 per cent, Hindalco at 11.3 per cent, Tata Motors at 10.8 per cent and Reliance Infra at 10.5 per cent.