European cues propel Sensex up 140 points (Roundup)

Rallying on the back of positive European cues, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed Monday's trade with a healthy gain of 140 points or 0.50 percent.

Healthy buying was observed in consumer goods, banking, automobile, capital goods and healthcare sectors, while selling pressure was seen in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and information technology (IT) scrips.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,249.84 points, closed trading at 28,262.01 points, up 140.12 points or 0.50 percent from the previous day's close at 28,121.89 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 28,334.06 points and a low of 28,197.36 points in intra-day trade.

"Europe believes that ECB (European Central Bank) will push QE (quantitative easing), hence Europe market has rallied higher in spite of measure taken by Swiss to cap euro conversion," said Vinod Nair, head-fundamental research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

"The completion of this event without red flags will be robust for India and we can look ahead of volatility towards further rate cut and budget expectation."

The S&P BSE consumer durables index surged by 332.88 points, automobile index was up 189.54 points, capital goods index gained by 188.76, healthcare index got augmented by 173.53 points.

However, FMCG index was lower by 58.08 points and IT index declined 12.5 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed the day's trade in positive territory. It closed up 36.90 points or 0.43 percent at 8,550.70 points.

The major Sensex gainers were Wipro, up 5.26 percent at Rs.584.45; Gail, up 3.73 percent at Rs.440.40; Axis Bank, up 2.67 percent at Rs.528.65, BHEL, up 2.57 percent at Rs.281.10 and Tata Motors, up 2.50 percent at Rs.538.75.

The losers were Hindustan Unilever, down 5.27 percent at Rs.892.80, Hero MotoCorp, down 1.90 percent at Rs.2,841.75, HDFC, down 0.99 percent at Rs.1,181.45, Tata Consultancy Service(TCS), down 0.87 percent at Rs.2,509.75 and State Bank of India (SBI), down 0.79 percent at Rs.313.10.