Thursday, March 9 2006 18:02 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The stock market today (Mar 09 2006) made a strong comeback, rebounding from the day's low to end 65 points up at 10,573.54 driven by late short covering by traders coupled with heavy purchases by domestic funds amid negative FII activity.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Benchmark 30-share Index (sensex) swung by 216.54 points between the intra-day low of 10,376.54 and the high of 10,593.08 on selling alternated by hectic buying support before ending the day at 10,573.54 from last close of 10,508.85, a net 64.69 points or 0.62 per cent.

The huge slide of 376.59 points in the last three days from the all-time intra-trade high of 10,753.13 to today's low, is considered to be a required downward correction for the good health of the market, brokers said.

Traders covered short positions in the second half of the session while domestic mutual funds made heavy purchases in several key counters, they added.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were believed to be heavy sellers for the third consecutive session. They made withdrawals of Rs 2110 crore in Nifty futures and Rs 824 crore in stocks futures on Wednesday, making a cumulative net sales of 4,817 crore in futures in the last two sessions.

The stock markets have become dependent on liquidity and witnessed a virtual meltdown in the last two days as global liquidity conditions seemed to be tightening world over.

A strong rally in ACC, Grasim, GACL, Infosys Tech, RIL, Wipro, Tata Steel, SBI, ICICI Bank, Dr Reddy's Lab and HLL helped market recover smartly.