Sensex ends 180 pts up; Maruti wows street, midcaps excel

Equity benchmarks made a remarkable recovery on Friday on short covering, the markets closed near day's high. The Sensex closed up 179.75 points or 0.90% at 20103.53, and the Nifty ended the day 55.30 points or 0.92% up at 6074.65.

After the carnage yesterday, the midcap rebounded today with nearly 2 percent gains. Yen was in focus after it hit a two-and-half year low of 90.69. 

Maruti Suzuki remained most active stock on the bourses clocking a gain of 4 percent gains. After six consecutive quarters of decline, Maruti moved in the fast lane by posting stellar numbers in the third quarter.

The two stocks which were hammered in yesterday's trade, IVRCL, HDIL, Suzlon too staged a good comeback.

Banks were among the leading gainers for the day. State Bank of India rose 2.22 percent, while ICICI Bank gained 0.73 percent.

Bank of Baroda surged 5 percent and Bank of India gained 4.5 percent on valuations that were considered attractive after profit concerns hit the shares earlier this month.

Property shares that would benefit from lower rates also gained. DLF  rose 3.2 percent, while Unitech surged 7 percent higher, recouping its 7 percent fall on Thursday.

Shares in Reliance Communications gained 7.62 percent after a newspaper reported the company was in talks to sell a stake in its mobile tower unit to Reliance Industries.

Shares in ITC gained 0.8 percent to Rs 299.75. The stock has gained 9.6 percent in the last two weeks, moving towards its record high hit on December12, as investors felt fears of a potential duty on cigarettes had dragged the stock down excessively.

Exide Industries shares fell 2.3 percent, down for the second day after Dutch banking and insurance group ING said it was selling its 26 percent stake in an Indian insurance venture to local partner Exide.

Shares in Reliance Industries ended 0.4 percent lower as recent recommendations on a revision in local gas prices was seen benefiting state-run upstream companies such as Oil and Natural Gas Crop and Oil India with immediate effect.

(With inputs from Reuters)