Sensex up 260 pts, closes at 14,424.87

The benchmark Sensex Friday moved up by 260 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange on expectation the government and the left allies will resolve their differences on the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The Sensex, which remained volatile since morning, shot up by 260.89 points to 14,424.87. Twenty-eight out of the 30 stocks in the index ended with gains.

The CPI(M) last evening said it did not want the "current crisis" over the nuclear deal to affect the Manmohan Singh government and that it had not discussed the possibility of elections in a crucial two-day meeting.

Congress had also expressed hope that some way would be found to ease the stand-off. "We hope keeping in view the national interest, some understanding will be reached and some way will be found out," AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi has said.

The index touched the day`s high of 14,455.49 and a low of 14,163.61.

The wide-base national stock exchange`s nifty also surged by 75.80 points to 4,190.15.

Stock markets had yesterday declined on concern that the opposition from communist parties on the nuclear accord could lead to an election about two years ahead of schedule.

The major support to the market today came from the metal sector by rising 284.20 points at 10,276.60 followed by capital goods index by 285.56 points at 12,622.23.

PSU segment index rose by 148.88 points at 6626.05, auto sector index by 105.80 points at 4569.26, bank index by 91.14 points at 7315.43, it index by 52.20 points at 4408.48, technology index by 50.62 points at 3466.72 and healthcare index by 37.42 points at 3424.02.