Bottom-fishing by investors, along with supportive global cues, ensured that the domestic market erased the losses incurred on Friday. Today, the Nifty closed just above the 6,000 mark, while the Sensex was just short of the 20,000 levels.

The market opened on a firm note this morning on positive global cues. Early gains were led by consumer durables, technology and IT stocks. Across-the-board buying by institutional investors lifted the indices further as the session progressed. The indices ended the session near the day's highs as investor sentiments improved with concerns over the ongoing debt crisis in Europe easing.

The Sensex closed 372.15 points (1.90%) higher at 19,957 after touching an intraday high and low of 19,989 and 19,641, respectively. The Nifty settled 119.70 points (2.03%) up at 6,010. The index touched a high of 6,020 and a low of 5,905.

The gainers outnumbered the losers. The Sensex had 27 advancing stocks against three losers while the Nifty ended the day with 43 gainers and seven decliners. Among the broader indices, the BSE Mid-cap index gained 1.28% and the BSE Small-cap index surged 1.46%.

The top gainers on the Sensex included Wipro (up 4.16%), Jaiprakash Associates (up 4.02%), DLF (up 3.43%), Tata Motors (up 3.18%) and HDFC Bank (up 2.99%). The laggards were NTPC (down 0.62%), Larsen & Toubro (down 0.22%) and Sterlite Industries (down 0.11%).

The sectoral space wore a green coat today. BSE Bankex (up 2.64%), BSE Consumer Durables (up 2.59%), BSE IT (up 2.50%), BSE TECk (up 2.22%) and BSE Realty (up 2.01%) were the top performers.
 
Markets across Asia ended mixed as concerns over the global economic recovery remain. The market got a boost as Ireland agreed to a bailout package from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

The Shanghai Composite ended 0.15% lower, the Hang Seng was down 0.35%, the KLSE Composite shrank 0.19% and the Straits Times shed 0.20%. On the other hand, the Jakarta Composite rose 0.43%, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.93%, the Taiwan Weighted was up 0.83% and the Seoul Composite added 0.17% today.

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEB) is mulling reducing the timeline for investors to apply for an initial public offer (IPO) through the Applications Supported by Blocked Accounts (ASBA) model, SEBI chairman CB Bhave said on Sunday.

Currently, it is a 21-day process and the financial transactions are structured in such a manner that investors have to pay on day one when applying for an IPO and the refund comes to him after 30 days, during which period the money is blocked.

The US markets closed with modest gains on Friday, brushing off concerns relating to the Chinese government's rate hike. Besides, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke defended the recent stimulus package in a speech on Friday after severe criticism that the move would devalue the dollar and give American companies an advantage in global trade.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 22.32 points (0.20%) to 11,203. The S&P 500 added 3.04 points (0.25%) to 1,199. The Nasdaq gained 3.72 points (0.1%) to 2,518.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of stocks worth Rs368 crore on Friday. Domestic institutional investors were net buyers of Rs300 crore in the equities segment on the same day.

Tata Docomo, the GSM arm of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 0.73%), today formally launched its third generation (3G) services.

"It will equip customers with dual advantage and trusted service from the well-known house of Tatas," president of Tata Teleservices Ltd, Pankaj Sethi, told reporters.

The 3G network, set up with assistance of NTT Docomo, supports high speed internet access with speed up to 21.1 mbps and also supports High-Definition voice (HD voice) for a superior voice experience on calls, Sethi said.

Tata Chemicals (up 1.48%) today said it has put on hold the Rs3,800 crore expansion plan of its urea manufacturing unit at Babrala, Uttar Pradesh, due to non-availability of gas.

"We have been waiting for gas allocation for our second phase urea expansion plan at Babrala unit, which was scheduled to happen by October-November, this year. As we have not got gas, we are holding back our plans," Tata Chemicals managing director R Mukundan told reporters.

Shareholders of Nirma Ltd (down 0.04%) have approved, through a postal ballot, the move to delist the company's shares from the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange. The percentage of valid votes by all shareholders including promoters was 99.87%, the company said in a filing with the exchanges.