Business
Sensex closes 303 points up; banking stocks rise
Mumbai, April 1
A benchmark index of Indian
equities markets, the 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex), made healthy
gains during Wednesday's trading session and closed the day at 303
points or 1.08 percent up.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the
National Stock Exchange (NSE) also made gains during the day's trade. It
closed trade up 95.25 points up or 1.12 percent at 8,586.25 points.
The
Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at
27,954.86 points, closed the day's trade at 28,260.14 points, up 302.65
points or 1.08 percent over the previous day's close at 27,957.49
points.
The Sensex touched a high of 28,298.34 points and a low of 27,889.02 points in the intra-day trade.
Healthy buying was observed in banks, healthcare, automobile, capital goods and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors.
The
S&P BSE bank index gained 495.14 points, healthcare index rose by
398.94 points, automobile index went up by 206.75 points, capital goods
index climbed 147.22 points, and FMCG index increased by 104.10 points.
However,
information technology (IT) index was down 126.77 points, followed by
technology, entertainment and media (TECK) index which was lower by
31.49 points.
Charting Wednesday's trade, an analyst said that
after a choppy trading session in the beginning, the markets rose on the
back of buying in selected counters like banking, healthcare and
infrastructure.
On the international front, the strong manufacturing growth in Britain also kept the market buoyant.
"Strong
momentum in European market led by good PMI provided the essential
trend to India market. Against expectation, the long trading holiday did
not negatively affect the market," said Vinod Nair, head - Fundamental
Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
According to
Nair, the negative flow from DIIs (Domestic Institutional Investors)
during the month of March provided the higher liquidity to the market.
"The
post-immediate factor will be the take from RBI (Reserve Bank of India)
meet on 7th April. We cannot expect a immediate cut in interest rate as
CPI (Consumer Price Index) is on the uptick," Nair said.
"But we
have to look at scope to surprise the market through a CRR (capital
reserve ratio) cut and forward outlook (statement)," Nair added.
Dipen Shah, head of private client group research, Kotak Securities
said that going ahead, there are no immediate triggers for the markets
on the domestic front and hence, markets may continue to be dictated by
global factors.
The major Sensex gainers on Wednesday were: Sun
Pharma, up 5.51 percent at Rs.1,078.55; Tata Motors, up 2.65 percent at
Rs.564.55; State Bank of India (SBI), up 2.42 percent at Rs.273.45;
ICICI Bank, up 2.41 percent at Rs.322.90; and Hindalco Inds, up 2.32
percent at Rs.132.15.
The losers were: Infosys, down 2.00 percent
at Rs.2,172.25; Maruti Suzuki, down 1.53 percent at Rs.3,642.55, BHEL,
down 1.34 percent at Rs.231.80, GAIL, down 1.09 percent at Rs.384.60 and
Cipla, down 0.25 percent at Rs.709.45.
Among the Asian markets,
Japan's Nikkei went down by 0.90 percent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng
closed higher by 0.73 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index also
gained 1.66 percent.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was up by 0.92
percent, France's CAC 40 was higher by 1.38 percent and Germany's DAX
Index was up 1.07 percent at the closing in the Indian markets.
The Indian markets will remain closed on April 2-3 on account of Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday.