Sensex closes 303 points up; banking stocks rise (Roundup)

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex), made healthy gains during Wednesday's trading session and closed the day at 303 points or 1.08 percent up.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also made gains during the day's trade. It closed trade up 95.25 points up or 1.12 percent at 8,586.25 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 27,954.86 points, closed the day's trade at 28,260.14 points, up 302.65 points or 1.08 percent over the previous day's close at 27,957.49 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 28,298.34 points and a low of 27,889.02 points in the intra-day trade.

Healthy buying was observed in banks, healthcare, automobile, capital goods and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors.

The S&P BSE bank index gained 495.14 points, healthcare index rose by 398.94 points, automobile index went up by 206.75 points, capital goods index climbed 147.22 points, and FMCG index increased by 104.10 points.

However, information technology (IT) index was down 126.77 points, followed by technology, entertainment and media (TECK) index which was lower by 31.49 points.

Charting Wednesday's trade, an analyst said that after a choppy trading session in the beginning, the markets rose on the back of buying in selected counters like banking, healthcare and infrastructure.

On the international front, the strong manufacturing growth in Britain also kept the market buoyant.

"Strong momentum in European market led by good PMI provided the essential trend to India market. Against expectation, the long trading holiday did not negatively affect the market," said Vinod Nair, head - Fundamental Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

According to Nair, the negative flow from DIIs (Domestic Institutional Investors) during the month of March provided the higher liquidity to the market.

"The post-immediate factor will be the take from RBI (Reserve Bank of India) meet on 7th April. We cannot expect a immediate cut in interest rate as CPI (Consumer Price Index) is on the uptick," Nair said.

"But we have to look at scope to surprise the market through a CRR (capital reserve ratio) cut and forward outlook (statement)," Nair added.

Dipen Shah, head of private client group research, Kotak Securities said that going ahead, there are no immediate triggers for the markets on the domestic front and hence, markets may continue to be dictated by global factors.

The major Sensex gainers on Wednesday were: Sun Pharma, up 5.51 percent at Rs.1,078.55; Tata Motors, up 2.65 percent at Rs.564.55; State Bank of India (SBI), up 2.42 percent at Rs.273.45; ICICI Bank, up 2.41 percent at Rs.322.90; and Hindalco Inds, up 2.32 percent at Rs.132.15.

The losers were: Infosys, down 2.00 percent at Rs.2,172.25; Maruti Suzuki, down 1.53 percent at Rs.3,642.55, BHEL, down 1.34 percent at Rs.231.80, GAIL, down 1.09 percent at Rs.384.60 and Cipla, down 0.25 percent at Rs.709.45.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei went down by 0.90 percent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed higher by 0.73 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index also gained 1.66 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was up by 0.92 percent, France's CAC 40 was higher by 1.38 percent and Germany's DAX Index was up 1.07 percent at the closing in the Indian markets.

The Indian markets will remain closed on April 2-3 on account of Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday.