Sensex closes marginally up; banking, healthcare stocks rise
Mumbai : A benchmark index for Indian equities markets closed marginally up Tuesday. Banking, healthcare and realty stocks gained.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in the negative at 18,739.97 points, closed 18,817.38 points, down 0.29 percent or 54.51 points, from its previous day close at 18,762.87 points.
The benchmark Sensex moved in a narrow range. It touched a high of 18,829.07 points and a low of 18,726.94 points in intra-day trade.
The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also witnessed lacklustre trading. The Nifty closed 0.35 percent or 20.20 points higher at 5,724.40 points.
There was some buying support in banking, healthcare and realty stocks. The bank index of the BSE climbed 78.78 points, healthcare index was up 73.61 points, while the realty index was up 37.07 percent.
However, auto index fell 54.10 points, followed by Capital goods index, down 22.93 points, and information technology (IT) index, down 0.54 points.
Among the main gainers were Cipla, up 4.18 percent at Rs.396.35; Gail India, up 1.85 percent at Rs.363.05; HDFC, up 1.75 percent at Rs.782.35; Jindal Steel, up 1.43 percent at Rs.386.35; and State Bank of India (SBI), up 1.39 percent at Rs.2,172.85.
The major Sensex losers were Hindalco Inds, down 1.87 percent at Rs.112.55; Maruti Suzuki, down 1.70 percent at Rs.1,454.55; Tata Motors, down 1.06 percent at Rs.266.85; Hero MotoCorp, down 0.72 percent at Rs.1,935.40; and Bajaj Auto, down 0.60 percent at Rs.1,849.05.
Asian markets were down ahead of the presidential election in the US, the world’s largest economy. Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.36 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.28 percent lower. Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.38 percent.
However, the European markets fared better. At closing bell here, London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.52 percent. And so were Germany’s DAX, up 0.54 percent, and France’s CAC, up 0.59 percent.
Photo : AFP