Sensex closes 385 points up; bank stocks gain

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Thursday closed 385 points or nearly two percent, up a day after the finance ministry said banks will be provided with additional capital for financing cheap loans for consumer durable purchases.

The bullish sentiment was also backed by the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) decision Monday that it will infuse Rs.10,000 crore into the system by purchasing government securities through open-market operations (OMO) next week to ease liquidity constraints.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,585.79 points, closed at 19,902.07 points, up 384.92 points or 1.97 percent from Tuesday's close at 19,517.15 points.

The Sensex saw a high of 19,929.24 points and a low of 19,583.97 in the day's trade.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also rose by 2.24 percent or 129.65 points at 5,909.70 points.

Sector-wise, bank, metal, automobile, capital goods and oil and gas stocks gained. However, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) scrips plunged.

The S&P BSE bank index rose by 383.46 points, metal index closed the day's trade up 328.90 points, followed by automobile index which was higher by 263.75 points, capital goods index was up 220.84 points and oil and gas index increased by 200.54 points.

Heavy selling pressure was observed in FMCG index which fell 60.40 points in the day's trade.

The prominent Sensex gainers were: Sesa Goa, up 7.21 percent at Rs.188.10; Bajaj Auto, up 5.10 percent at Rs.2,119.70; Hindalco Inds, up 4.34 percent at Rs.115.45; Tata Power, up 4.04 percent at Rs.81.15; and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 4.02 percent at Rs.2,023.80.

The losers were: Hindustan Unilever, down 1.61 percent at Rs.609.30 and ITC, down 1.30 percent at Rs.338.45.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.09 percent down. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was higher by one percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index was 0.68 percent up.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.18 percent up, while Germany's DAX Index was lower by 0.11 percent. The French CAC 40 was down by 0.37 percent.