Sensex ends 131 points up; banks, consumer goods gain

Mumbai : A benchmark index for Indian equities markets closed 131 points higher Wednesday, led by buying support in banking, consumer durables and realty stocks.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened positive at 18,379.90 points, closed at 18,460.38 points, up 0.72 percent or 131.06 points from its previous day close at 18,329.32 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 18,478.50 points and low of 18,309.81 points in the intra-day.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also closed trading 0.78 percent or 43.25 points higher at 5,614.80 points.

Good buying was witnessed in banking, consumer durables, FMCG and metal stocks. The bank index of the BSE was up 165.29 points, followed by consumer durables index, up 103.69 points, the FMCG index, up 80.43 points, and the metal index, up 69.07 points.

The major Sensex gainers were Cipla, 2.61 percent higher at Rs.389.70; Sun Pharma, up 2.43 percent at Rs.699.35; Tata Power, up 1.98 percent at Rs.100.35; Jindal Steel, up 1.97 percent at Rs.375.75; and ITC, up 1.96 percent at Rs.285.60.

Only 11 of the 30 Sensex scrips were trading in the red.

Among the losers were NTPC, down 3.46 percent at Rs.162.00; BHEL, down 2.70 percent at Rs.222.00; Hero MotoCorp, down 1.00 percent at Rs.1,806.30; Bharti Airtel, down 0.63 percent at Rs.307.30; and Maruti Suzuki, down 0.52 percent at Rs.1,491.80.

Other Asian markets too ended in green. Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.87 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was higher by 1.39 percent. China’s Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.07 percent.

A downturn, however, prevailed among European markets where Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.17 percent, while the German DAX was lower by 0.04 percent. The French CAC 40 index was trading down by 0.08 percent.