Sensex closes 52 points down, oil and gas stocks fall

Mumbai  :  Wiping out early gains, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed 52 points lower Thursday. Oil and gas and information technology stocks bore the brunt of selling.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,659.75 points, closed at 18,579.50 points (provisional), 52.67 points or 0.28 percent down from its previous day’s close at 18,632.17 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 18,735.95 points and a low of 18,552.68 points in intra-day trade. The BSE midcap index was up 31.63 points while the smallcap index was 10.62 points high.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed 13.95 points or 0.25 percent down at 5,649.50 points.

On the sectoral front, the BSE oil and gas index was down 139.67 points and IT index was down 65.69 points.

The major Sensex gainers were Larsen and Toubro (L&T), up 34.45 points or 2.21 percent at Rs.1,596.25; Tata Power, up 1.90 points or 1.85 percent at Rs.104.55; Hindustan Unilever, 8.40 points or 1.59 percent at Rs.536.15; ITC, up 3.30 points or 1.25 percent at Rs.266.50; and Maruti Suzuki, up 13.35 points or 1.02 percent at Rs.1,327.60.

The main losers were Sterlite Inds, down 2.95 points or 2.93 percent at Rs.97.75; Hero MotoCorp, down 45.55 points or 2.37 percent at Rs.1,878.15; ONGC, down 5.55 points or 1.97 percent at Rs.275.50; BHEL, down 4.85 points or 1.92 percent at Rs.248.25; and RIL, down 13.90 points or 1.65 percent at Rs.830.20.

Among other Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei closed up 0.48 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended trading 1.14 percent higher. Shanghai’s composite index was also up 2.60 percent.

European markets too opened in green. France’s CAC was up 0.23 percent and so was Germany’s DAX, up 0.44 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 was trading 0.31 percent higher.

Photo : AFP