Sensex closes 141 points up; IT stocks gain

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Monday gained 141 points or 0.67 percent as information technology (IT) and bank stocks moved up.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 21,083.53 points, closed at 21,205.05 points -- up 141.43 points or 0.67 percent from its previous day's close at 21,063.62 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 21,122.37 points and a low of 21,001.13 intra-day.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed trade 42.30 points or 0.68 percent up at 6,303.95 points.

In Monday's trade, the S&P BSE IT index was up 265.49 points followed by technology, entertainment and media (TECk) index which gained 128.50 points and bank index was 93.66 points higher.

However, the S&P oil and gas index was lower by 84.17 points.

The major gainers were: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 5.53 percent at Rs.2,338.25; Wipro, up 3.77 percent at Rs.573.30; Sesa Sterlite, up 2.49 percent at Rs.205.50; ITC, up 1.65 percent at Rs.330.20; and Tata Motors, up 1.34 percent at Rs.374.60.

The main losers were: Reliance Industries, down 1.70 percent at Rs.869.50; Coal India, down 1.12 percent at Rs.269.70; Tata Power, down 1.02 percent at Rs.77.60; Sun Pharma, down 0.81 percent at Rs.589.35; and Bharti Airtel, down 0.79 percent at Rs.308.75.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.59 percent down, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.88 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index was lower by 0.68 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.05 percent up. However, Germany's DAX Index was lower by 0.17 percent and the French CAC 40 Index marginally edged up by 0.02 percent.