Sensex closes 130 points up; automobile stocks rally

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Tuesday closed 0.65 percent up, as automobile, oil and gas, consumer durables, public sector units (PSU) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks rallied.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,056.28 points, closed at 20,160.82 points, up 130.05 points or 0.65 percent from its previous day's close at 20,030.77 points.

Sensex touched a high of 20,209.82 points and a low of 19,963.23 points in intra-day trade.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) has shown upward movement and ended 0.46 percent or 28.10 points up at 6,111.25 points.

The S&P BSE automobile index inched 145.71 points up, followed by oil and gas index, up 145.36 points, consumer durables index, up 88.39 points, consumer durables index, up 88.39 points, PSU index,up 82.80 points, and FMCG index, up 49.89 points.

However, S&P healthcare index closed 60.44 points lower and the bank index was down by 6.67 points.

The prominent Sensex gainers were: Hero MotoCorp, up 5.09 percent at Rs.1,745.75; BHEL, up 3.30 percent at Rs.203.25; Coal India, up 3.01 percent at Rs.322.95; Mahindra and Mahindra, up 2.22 percent at Rs.972.95; and ONGC, up 1.94 percent at Rs.333.30.

Among the major Sensex losers were Sun Pharma, down 1.90 percent at Rs.995.55; State Bank of India (SBI), down 1.45 percent at Rs.2,130.25; Sterlite Inds, down 1.40 percent at Rs.94.80; Cipla, down 1.18 percent at Rs.396.55; and HDFC, down 0.83 percent at Rs.920.15.

Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 1.20 percent higher, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng went 1.05 percent up. China's Shanghai Composite Index also closed 1.23 percent higher.

At closing bell here, major European markets were also trading in the positive territory. Britain's FTSE 100 was trading 1.79 percent up, while German DAX was up 1.19 percent. The French CAC 40 was 1.45 percent higher.