Sensex closes in green, HUL top gaine

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed 40 points up Tuesday in choppy trade in the absence of any domestic or overseas trigger. Scrips of FMCG, consumer durables and oil and gas sectors were the major gainers.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened in the green at 16,907.74 points, but soon lost the momentum and amid volatility closed at 16,918.08 points, 0.24 percent or 40.73 points up from its previous day’s close at 16,877.35 points.

“Market continued to oscillate between gains and losses. This is mainly because of rollover procedure,” said Kishor Ostwal, chief managing director (CMD), CNI Research.

The BSE FMCG index was up 93.01 points, followed by the consumer durables index, up 72.57 points, and oil and gas index, up 67.05 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 0.20 percent up at 5,128.20 points.

Hindustan Unilever (HUL) was the biggest Sensex gainer and closed 7.5 percent up at Rs.476.05 as the company’s net profit doubled year-on-year in the quarter ended June 2012.

The other major Sensex gainers were Sterlite Inds, up 2.56 percent at Rs.102.10; Maruti Suzuki, up 2.34 percent at Rs.1,105.20; Bharti Airtel, up 1.42 percent at Rs.308.15; and ONGC, up 1.19 percent at Rs.284.40.

The main losers were Wipro, down 2.93 percent at Rs.346; Larsen and Toubro, down 1.45 percent at Rs.1,354.55; Sun Pharma, down 1.38 percent at Rs.608.25; BHEL, down 0.96 percent at Rs.217.70; and Mahindra and Mahindra, down 0.90 percent at Rs.686.50.

Other Asian markets closed mixed. Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.24 percent down while Shanghai’s composite index went 0.24 percent up. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.79 percent.

At closing bell here, the European markets were in the red. France’s CAC was down 0.18 percent and so was Germany’s DAX, down 0.21 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 was trading 0.10 percent lower.