Indian equities up on bargain hunting by investors (Roundup)

A key Indian equities index, the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange, closed 291.47 points, or 1.21 percent, higher on Tuesday despite China reporting its lowest growth in 25 years during the quarter ending December 2015.

Analysts said investors had already discounted the development and were hunting for bargains at lower levels.

The 30-share Sensex, which opened at 24,257.28 points, closed at 24,479.84 points -- up 291.47 points, or 1.21 percent, over the previous day's close at 24,188.37 points. It touched a high of 24,563.34 points and a low of 24,247.23 points in Tuesday's trade.

The broader Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also closed with gains of 84.10 points or 1.14 percent at 7,435.10 points.

"Indian markets, especially at open, got a breather after Chinese GDP numbers came in more or less as expected. Rise in oil prices also helped sentiments, which were further boosted by rise in European markets," said Anand James of Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

"The market bounced back sharply snapping its three-day losing streak aided by lower-level buying and short covering," added Gaurav Jain of Hem Securities. "Further, bounce-back in commodity prices, rally in global markets and cues thereof and decent corporate earnings of India Inc so far has uplifted the sentiment of the Street."

In Tuesday's trade, good buying was observed in industrials, capital goods, telecom and banking sectors.

Among the sector-specific indices of the Mumbai bourse, industrials index gained by 3.01 percent, capital goods index surged by 2.85 percent, telecom index moved up by 2.74 percent and bankex inched up by 1.68 points.

The 100-scrip and 200-scrip indices were higher by 1.15 percent and 1.20 percent, respectively. Mid-cap index was up by 1.75 percent and small-cap index ended 1.74 percent higher.

The Sensex gainers on Friday were Adani Ports, up 5.90 percent at Rs.232.40; Axis Bank, up 5.23 percent at Rs.393.10; Tata Motors, up 3.71 percent at Rs.354.05; and L&T, up 3.68 percent at Rs.1,122.70.

The losers were: Mahindra & Mahindra, down 1.19 percent at Rs.1153.15; Wipro, down 1.02 percent at Rs.541.75; and Coal India, down 0.92 percent at Rs.308.60.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei moved up by 0.55 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index was higher by 3.25 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up by 2.07 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was up by 1.79 percent, France's CAC 40 moved up by 2.35 percent, and Germany's DAX Index was higher by 1.97 percent at the closing in the Indian markets.