Mumbai, Sep 21 (IANS) A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed 415 points higher Friday on hopes of further policy reforms in the coming days.
The government Thursday issued a notification for allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail. Earlier it had also hiked diesel price and capped the supply of subsidised cooking gas.
Capital goods, power and metal stocks were the best performers.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,411.20 points, closed 18,765.01 points (provisionally), 415.76 points or 2.27 percent up from its previous day’s close at 18,349.25 points.
The Sensex earlier in the day had surged 464 points and touched a high of 18,866.87 and had fallen to a low of 18,411.20 points in intra-day trade.
The BSE midcap index was up 113.01 points while the smallcap index was 104.04 points high.
The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 2.52 percent up at 5,694 points.
On the sectoral front, the BSE capital goods index was up 441.76 points while power index was up 80.50 points and metal index was up 416.05 points.
The major Sensex gainers were BHEL, up 6.99 percent at Rs.232; Jindal Steel, up 6.88 percent at Rs.428.50; Sterlite Inds, up 5.10 percent at Rs.104.10; Tata Power, up 4.51 percent at Rs.103.10; and SBI, up 4.29 percent at Rs.2,212.50.
There were only four Sensex losers — Dr Reddys Lab, down 1.44 percent at Rs.1,642.50; TCS, down 1.30 percent at Rs.1,304.35; Infosys, down 0.84 percent at Rs.2,593.50; and Sun Pharma, down 0.08 percent at Rs.669.40.
