Sensex up 155 points in early trade

Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex on Tuesday recovered nearly 155 points in early trade on emergence of buying by funds and retail investors amidst fall in global crude oil prices. Snapping its four-day losing streak, the 30-share index gained 154.82 points, or 0.62 percent, to 25,186.14, with all the sectoral indices led by infrastructure and oil and gas, are trading in positive zone with gains up to 0.94 percent. The index had lost nearly 490 points in the last four sessions. Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty moved up by 31.90 points, or 0.43 percent, to 7,525.25. Brokers said emergence of buying by funds and retail investors supported by fall in global crude oil prices after fading of fears about supply disruption in the wake of Iraq crisis influenced the trading sentiments here. Meanwhile, in Asian trade West Texas Intermediate was down 47 cents at $105.70 while Brent crude eased 19 cents to $113.93 in mid-morning trade. Stocks of sugar companies such as Bajaj Hindusthan, Shree Renuka Sugar, EID Parry, Dhampur Sugar and Rajshree Sugar continued rally and rose up to 7.63 percent. The government on Monday decided to hike the import duty on sugar and provide an additional interest-free loan of up to Rs 4,400 crore to pay dues to cane growers. In the Asian region, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.49 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.45 percent in early trade. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.06 percent lower in yesterday’s trade. PTI