MUMBAI: Foreign fund buying helped sensex settle marginally higher on Monday, despite crude oil prices continuing the recent uptrend and rupee hitting a new record low against the dollar. Some short covering during the closing hours of the day’s session also helped the up move on Dalal Street, market players said.With fresh tensions brewing between the US and Iran, Brent crude rallied to above $111/barrel level. This in turn raised chances of higher inflation and higher interest rates in India since crude is the biggest import item for the country. Combined with it, rupee also weakened to near the 96.5-per-dollar level in early trades.Weighed by these factors, sensex opened the week’s trading about 400 points down, slid in early trades to lose more than 1,000 points from Friday’s close, but a smart recovery started soon after. At close the index was at 75,315 points, up 77 points.Foreign funds were aggressive buyers on Monday with a net inflow of Rs 2,814 crore, BSE data showed. Domestic funds were also buyers during the day, with the net inflow at Rs 2,682 crore. In Monday’s session, buying, however, was mostly concentrated in large cap stocks while mid and smallcap stocks witnessed selling. As a result, BSE’s midcap index closed 0.2% lower while the small-cap index closed 1.5% down.The day’s session also left investors poorer by a little over Rs 2 lakh crore with BSE’s market capitalisation now at about Rs 458.4 lakh crore.
