Indices close with strong gains as Asian markets recover

24 January 2006

The markets opened sharply higher as Asian markets recovered from yesterday's losses. Steady trend in the US markets and a decline in crude oil prices helped markets across the region to close higher today.

The indices declined marginally by mid-morning before recovering and re-testing their morning highs by early afternoon. The 25-bps rate hike by RBI did not have much of an impact on market sentiment though it was unexpected.

Both the Sensex and the Nifty dropped sharply in afternoon trades before recovering and closing near the highs of the day.

ABB was the biggest gainer among index stocks after the company announced strong results. The stock closed with gains of over 8.5 per cent. The surge in ABB led to a rally in other engineering stocks as well. L&T closed more than 4 per cent higher while BHEL added over 2 per cent.

Some of the auto stocks had a very good day, led by Maruti which closed more than 4.5 per cent higher. Tata Motors added close to 3 per cent.