Wednesday, November 23 2005 18:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The sensex today (Nov 23, 2005) staged a dramatic turnaround after a two-day slide and ended 103 points up at 8638.34 on heavy buying support prompted by increased Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) inflows coupled with upgradation of currency ratings for RIL.

RIL hogged the limelight scoring impressive gains on news that International credit rating agency Standard & Poor's upgraded its long-term foreign and local currency ratings for RIL to 'BBB' from 'BB+' with a stable outlook.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Benchmark 30-share Index (sensex) rallied sharply to the intra-day high of 8649.68 before ending the day at 8638.34 as against yesterday's close of 8534.97, a net recovery of 103.37 points or 1.21 per cent.

The sensex had fallen by more than 150 points in the last two sessions after a slowdown in FII inflows last week.

Crediting the bounce back largely to a hefty FII inflows of Rs 423.70 crore in the Cash segment on November 21, brokers said FIIs and operators were also engaged in squaring up of positions in the Futures and Options (F&O) ahead of expiry of contract on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the market discounted the defeat of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a key coalition partner in the Congress-led Government at centre, in Bihar assembly elections as the development is unlikely to create any political instability, brokers added.

Firm trend in Asian markets also had a positive impact on the market. The Hang Seng today ended up by 176.70 points, the Taiwan by 64 points, the Kospi by 37.52 points and Singapore ST index by 18.48 points.