Sensex's rise ends four-day decline

Mumbai: India's benchmark Sensitive Index rose, snapping a 20 per cent, four-day decline, in a special one-hour trading session to mark Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel gained.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index, or Sensex, gained 498.52, or 5.9 per cent, to 9,008.08 at the 7:15pm close in Mumbai, the most since October 13. The S&P/CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange advanced 160.4, or 6.4 per cent, to 2,684.60.

"There's a feel-good factor after the gains in markets in Europe and Asia,'" said Arun Kejriwal, founder of Kejriwal Research & Investment Services. "The stocks were hammered out of shape in recent sessions and most stocks now look attractive."

The Sensex, which swung by more than 1,000 points on Monday, has declined 56 per cent this year as overseas investors sold $12.4 billion of Indian stocks following the global markets rout.

The rise in Indian stocks mirrored gains across Europe and Asia as the MSCI World Index traded near the cheapest relative to earnings since at least 1995. The MSCI World Index today added 2.1 per cent to 851.16. The gauge is trading at 10.5 times reported earnings of the companies in the index.

Bullish trend

"The bullishness seen in stocks may last for a couple of days," said Kejriwal, who bought shares of Tata Power Ltd. and The Great Eastern Shipping Co. to mark Diwali. "The festival trading is losing its significance, only token purchases are made these days."

The Securities & Exchange Board of India on Monday raised the limit to which stake-holding in a company can be increased through so-called "creeping acquisition".