Sensex at 15-month high, closes above 19,000-mark on reform hopes

Mumbai  :  A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Thursday rallied to a 19,000-high for the first time in almost 15 months on the government’s fresh reforms push.

Good inflows of foreign capital also helped boost sentiment at Dalal Street. Banking, realty and capital goods stocks gained the most.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,939.75 points, closed at 19,058.15 points, 188.46 points or 1 percent higher than its previous day’s close at 18,869.69 points.

It had risen over 200 points during afternoon trade.

The Sensex touched a high of 19,107.04 points and a low of 18,939.75 points in intra-day trade. The BSE midcap index was up 27.53 points while the smallcap index was up 24.86 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange hit a 17-month high, closing 0.98 percent up at 5,787.60 points.

The markets saw sharp intra-day gains ahead of a meeting of the cabinet that was to decide on opening up the pension sector to foreign investment, raising the FDI cap in insurance sector to 49 percent from the current 26 percent, increasing urea prices, and approve the creation of a National Investment Board.

On the sectoral front, the BSE realty index was up 91.58 points followed by the consumer durable index, up 169.16 points and banking index up 251.39 points.

Major Sensex gainers were BHEL, up 6.57 percent at Rs.266.05; ICICI Bank, up 2.93 percent at Rs.1,083.70; Dr Reddys Lab, up 2.16 percent at Rs.1,718; SBI, up 2.15 percent at Rs.2,344.80; and Maruti Suzuki, up 1.97 percent at Rs.1,391.20.

The main losers were Cipla, down 3.86 percent at Rs.366.40; Mahindra and Mahindra, down 1.24 percent at Rs.859.05; Bajaj Auto, down 1.05 percent at Rs.1,765.25; Hero MotoCorp, down 1.02 percent at Rs.1,831; and Coal India, down 0.92 percent at Rs.361.60.

Among other Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.89 percent up while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended trading 0.09 percent higher. Shanghai’s composite index also closed 1.45 percent up.

At closing bell here, European markets were, however, trading in red. Both France’s CAC and Germany’s DAX were down 0.28 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 was trading 0.18 percent lower.

Photo : AFP