Sensex ends 117 points higher; ONGC, Infosys, L&T lead

The market has not seen any spectacular rally on the first day of August - contrary to the expectation of a surge post the US raising debt limit. The Sensex managed to surge more than 200 points in early trade but as the day progressed it lost half of the morning gains.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 117 points, to end at 18,314 and the 50-share NSE Nifty went up 35 points, to close at 5,517, after hitting an intra-day high of 18,440.07 & 5,551.90, respectively.

Even the market breadth turned negative, which was around 4:1 in the opening trade. About 525 shares advanced against 795 shares declined on National Stock Exchange.

It seemed that both investors and traders are still worried on the US deficit though the US President Barack Obama assured that leaders of both the parties in the US House and Senate had approved an agreement to raise the nation's debt ceiling and cut the federal deficit. [ Obama says deal reached to end debt impasse ]

However, Adrian Mowat of JPMorgan feels that even though a consensus has been reached on the deal, the US debt crisis is not averted yet. ''The fiscal drag is the main worry for the US now,'' he said.

The White House and congressional leaders said the compromise would cut about USD 2.5 trillion from the deficit over the next 10 years.