Mumbai, April 17 (IANS) A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed 352 points or 1.58 percent up Thursday, breaking a three-day losing streak.
All the sectors ended trade in green. The rally was led by auto, banking, IT, capital goods, oil and gas and metal sectors.
The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 22,327.76 points, closed at 22,628.84 points, up 351.61 points or 1.58 percent from its previous day close at 22,277.23 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 22,648.69 points and a low of 22,312.19 points intra-day.
The S&P BSE auto index gained 297.32 points, while the bank index increased by 255.43 points, IT index got augmented by 106.38 points, capital goods index moved up by 188.47 points, oil and gas index was up by 170.58 points and metal index inched up by 186.27 points.
IT services exporter HCL Technologies went up by 1.06 percent and closed at Rs.1424.30 after it posted 59 percent increase in net profit in the quarter ended March 31 or third quarter Thursday.
Similarly, Tata Consultancy Services stocks went up by 1.02 percent and closed at Rs.2,217.45 Thursday following its quarterly earnings Wednesday, where it posted 52 percent in net profit for the March or fourth quarter.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed trade at 104.10 points or 1.56 percent up at 6,779.40 points.
The major Sensex gainers were: Hindalco Industries, up 4.40 percent at Rs.141.30; Tata Motors, up 4.24 percent at Rs.428.65; ICICI Bank, up 3.25 percent at Rs.1,262; and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, up 3.10 percent at Rs.181.05.
There was only one Sensex loser Thursday: HDFC Bank, down 0.92 percent at Rs.718.55.
Among the Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei closed flat at 0.00 percent; China’s Shanghai Composite Index was lower by 0.30 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up by 0.28 percent.
In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was trading 0.12 percent down, Germany’s DAX Index was down 0.24 percent and the French CAC 40 Index was down by 0.21 percent.
