Sensex gains 66 pts on special trading

Advancing for the third straight day, the Sensex gained 66 points during a special session today on sustained buying by investors amid ECB announcing a potentially unlimited bond-buying plan to revive eurozone's ailing economies.

Brokers said sentiment remained bullish as ECB's new bond buying plan is likely to lower the borrowing costs for the region's debt-ridden nations and ease fears over euro's fate.

The Sensex, which had gained 371 points in last two trading sessions, rose further by 65.92 points, or 0.37 per cent to 17,749.65 led by stocks of healthcare, metal and consumer durable sectors.

Both the stock exchanges, BSE and NSE opened and held a 90-minute special trading session from 1115 hrs to 1245 hrs to test their disaster recovery sites.

Traders said the Indian business having maximum exposure to the European markets, bolstered the domestic equities in the previous session to register their biggest single day gain.

Yesterday was the best single day performance since June 29 when Sensex rose by 337 points and investor wealth surged by Rs 84,000 crore.

The National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 16.60 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 5,358.70.

The most heaviest on the benchmark with their nearly 18 per cent weightage, Reliance Industries shot up by 0.56 per cent to Rs 795.45 and second heavy Infosys by 0.52 per cent to Rs 2,495.90.

In 30-BSE index components, 23 stocks closed with gains and seven ended in negative zone.

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