Sensex ends 93 points higher; IT, consumer durable stocks up

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed 93 points higher Thursday on firm global cues and good buying in IT, consumer durables, and oil and gas.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,288.34 points, closed 17278.85 points, up 0.55 percent or 93.84 points from its previous day’s close at 17,185.01 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 0.51 percent higher at 5,242.70 points.

The BSE IT index was up 91.81 points and so were consumer durable and oil and gas indices at 86.80 points and 99.31 points, respectively.

The major Sensex gainers were Infosys, up 3.08 percent at Rs.2,242.85; Sterlite Inds, up 2.42 percent at Rs.105.85; Tata Power, up 2.34 percent at Rs.100.70; BHEL, up 2.18 percent at Rs.234.65 and Bajaj Auto, up 1.76 percent at Rs.1,549.20.

The biggest loser was Maruti Suzuki, down 8.74 percent at Rs.1,117.35 due to labour-management conflict at the firm’s Manesar plant.

One person was killed and over two dozen people were injured in a fire in automobile major Maruti’s plant at Manesar in Haryana Wednesday as thousands of protesting workers locked its main gates trapping officials inside, according to authorities.

The other losers included Bharti Airtel, down 2.34 percent at Rs.317; Hero MotoCorp, down 1.37 percent at Rs.2,087.50; SBI, down 1.29 percent at Rs.2,157.75 and Dr Reddy’s Lab, down 0.98 percent at Rs.1,655.60.

Among other Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.79 percent up and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 1.66 percent up. China’s Composite index was 0.73 percent up.

At the closing bell here, European markets were in the green. France’s CAC was up 0.72 percent while Germany’s DAX was trading 1.07 percent higher. Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.32 percent.