Mumbai, April 9 (IANS) A benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex), made healthy gains during Thursday’s trade session. It ended 177 points or 0.62 percent up.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed with gains. It ended the day’s trade up 63.90 points or 0.73 percent at 8,778.30 points.
The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,858.42 points, closed the day’s trade at 28,885.21 points — up 177.46 points or 0.62 percent from the previous day’s close at 28,707.75 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 28,906.71 points and a low of 28,622.44 points in the intra-day trade.
Charting Thursday’s trade, an analyst said the Indian markets which opened on a positive note remained choppy ahead of the results season.
International ratings agency Moody’s upgrade of the India’s sovereign outlook also helped the markets make gains during the day’s trade. The global rating agency has maintained its rating on India at Baa3.
“Fair global market, good minutes from US Fed’s FoMC and upgrade by Moody’s helped to maintain the positive trajectory of the market,” said Vinod Nair, head, fundamental research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
“In the same time, interest sensitive stocks, especially banks, were up expecting cut in lending rate as a precursor set by RBI,” Nair added.
Healthy buying was observed in banking, metal and information technology (IT) sectors. However, heavy selling pressure was seen in healthcare, capital goods and consumer durables stocks.
The S&P BSE bank index was up 546.23 points followed by metal index which was higher by 140.91 points, and IT index gained 658.35 points.
However, the S&P BSE healthcare index was lower by 386.25 points, capital goods index fell by 80.08 points and consumer durables index was down 33.81 points.
The major Sensex gainers on Thursday were: Reliance Industries, up 3.40 percent at Rs.894.95; Axis Bank, up 2.88 percent at Rs.572.20; Tata Steel, up 2.69 percent at Rs.345.30; State Bank of India (SBI), up 2.50 percent at Rs.280.45; and HDFC Bank, up 1.68 percent at Rs.1,053.05.
The losers were: Sun Pharma, down 3.21 percent at Rs.1,113.30; Bharti Airtel, down 2.97 percent at Rs.406.80; Gail, down 2.96 percent at Rs.396.95; Cipla, down 2.34 percent at Rs.719.15; and BHEL, down 1.19 percent at Rs.233.
Among the Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei went up by 0.75 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed higher by 2.70 percent. China’s Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.91 percent.
In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was up by 0.83 percent and France’s CAC 40 was higher by 1.03 percent. Germany’s DAX Index was up 0.51 percent at the closing in the Indian markets.