Mumbai, Nov 1 (IANS) A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Thursday closed 56 points higher as automobiles, consumer durables and metals stocks gained.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,487.90 points, closed at 18,561.70 points, 56.32 points up from its previous day’s close at 18,505.38 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 18,589.13 points and a low of 18,445.18 in intra-day trade. The BSE midcap index was up by 55.81 points and the smallcap index, too, ended higher by 52.30 points.
On the sectoral front, the BSE consumer durables index was up by 386.14 points, followed by automobile index, up 226.37 points, metals index, up 82.71 points, and bank index, up 47.05 points.
The major Sensex gainers were Tata Motors, up by 4.89 percent at Rs.267.10; Bharti Airtel, up by 4.41 percent at Rs.280.85; Cipla, up by 3.12 percent at Rs.374.85; Wipro, up by 3.02 percent at Rs.361.40; and Bajaj Auto, up by 1.71 percent at Rs.1,845.05.
The main losers included Hindustan Unilever, down 1.84 percent at Rs.537.40; ONGC, down 1.34 percent at Rs.264.70; ITC, down 1.26 percent at Rs.279.25; Gail India, down 0.90 percent at Rs.345.65; and HDFC Bank, down 0.89 percent at Rs.628.90.
The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed 25.35 points or 0.45 percent up at 5,645.05 points.
Among other Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei was up by 0.21 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.83 percent higher, and Shanghai’s Composite Index ended trading 1.72 percent up.
At closing bell here, trading was mixed in European markets. London’s FTSE 100 was trading 0.51 percent down, while the German DAX and France’s CAC were 0.53 and 0.55 percent up, respectively.
