Sensex closes 50 points down; capital goods stocks plunge (Roundup)

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex), closed Wednesday's trade down 50 points or 0.18 percent.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed the day's trade in the red. It was down 12.15 points or 0.14 percent at 8,530.80 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,216.09 points, closed the day's trade at 28,111.83 points, down 49.89 points or 0.18 percent from the previous day's close at 28,161.72 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 28,249.60 points and a low of 28,031.42 points in the intra-day trade.

Healthy buying was observed in healthcare, automobile, information technology (IT), technology, entertainment and media (TECK) and consumer durables sectors.

However, capital goods, metal, bank, oil and gas and power came under selling pressure.

The S&P BSE healthcare index surged 82.94 points, followed by automobile index augmented by 61.04 points, IT index gained 38.25 points, TECK index rose 18.17 points and consumer durables index was higher by 8.33 points.

However, the S&P BSE capital goods index was down 279.13 points, metal index decreased by 93.04 points, bank index declined by 62.79 points, oil and gas index lost 52.54 points, and power index was lower by 25.02 points.

The major Sensex gainers on Wednesday were: Tata Motors, up 1.56 percent at Rs.541.20; ICICI Bank, up 1.51 percent at Rs.316.75; Wipro, up 1.36 percent at Rs.660.40; Sun Pharma, up 1.29 percent at Rs.1,053.30; and Mahindra and Mahindra, up 1.21 percent at Rs.1,207.95.

The losers were: NTPC, down 3.51 percent at Rs.147.25; GAIL, down 2.54 percent at Rs.380.10; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), down 2.31 percent at Rs.1,633.10; Coal India, down 2.11 percent at Rs.362.30; and State Bank of India (SBI), down 1.87 percent at Rs.265.35.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei went up by 0.17 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed higher by 0.53 percent. However, China's Shanghai Composite Index lost by 0.79 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was down by 0.15 percent, France's CAC 40 was lower by 0.62 percent and Germany's DAX Index lost 0.74 percent at the closing in the Indian markets.