Sensex closes flat; interest sensitive stocks plummet

Mumbai, April 23 (IANS) A benchmark index of the Indian equities markets ended flat in Tuesday's trade after capital goods, consumer durables and bank stocks plummeted.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in the red at 19,210.26 points, closed at 19,179.36 points, up 0.05 percent or 9.53 points from its previous day's close at 19,169.83 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 19,210.26 points and a low of 19,042.08 points in intra-day trade.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed the day 0.04 percent or 2.50 points down at 5,836.90 points.

There was heavy selling in interest-sensitive stocks like capital goods, banks and consumer durables.

The BSE capital goods index was down 125.89 points and the consumer durables index was down 84.87 points. The bank index ended 47.08 percent lower.

However, the healthcare index was up 55.98, oil and gas index was 44.12 points higher and informational technology (IT) index was up 36.94 points.

Of the 30 sensitive stocks on the BSE, 14 closed the day's trade in positive territory. These included Hero MotoCorp, which jumped 2.87 percent at Rs.1,572.05; Sun Pharma, up 2.51 percent at Rs.950.40; Bajaj Auto, up 2.40 percent at Rs.1,804.15; Reliance Industries, up 1.74 percent at Rs.803.50; and ICICI Bank, up 1.20 percent at Rs.1,161.70.

The major Sensex losers were: Jindal Steel, down 3.76 percent at Rs.328.90; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), down 2.04 percent at Rs.1,503.50; State Bank of India (SBI), down 1.61 percent at Rs.2,286.65; HDFC Bank, down 1.41 percent at Rs.689.40; and Tata Motors, down 1.37 percent at Rs.281.40.

Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.29 percent lower and Hong Kong's Hang Seng went down by 1.08 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index closed lower by 2.57 percent.

At the closing bell here, Britain's FTSE 100 was trading 1.10 percent up and so was German DAX, up 1.13 percent. The French CAC 40 was also ruling 2.18 percent up.