Sensex closes flat; IT stocks gain

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Friday closed marginally up in expectation of a mixed bag of earnings.

Good buying was seen in information technology (IT), automobile, technology, media and entertainment (TECk) and oil and gas sectors, while baking index (bankex), capital goods, healthcare, consumer durables and metal came under heavy selling pressure.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,213.45 points, closed at 20,149.85 points, up 21.44 points or 0.11 percent from the previous day's close at 20,128.41 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 20,256.60 points and a low of 20,111.13 points intra-day.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended 0.15 percent or 8.85 points up at 6,029.20 points.

The S&P BSE IT index shot up by 193.78 points followed by automobile index which grew by 174.04 points, technology, media and entertainment (TECk) index moved up by 88.95 points and oil and gas index closed Friday's trade up 60.82 points.

However, bankex tanked by 235.69 points, capital goods index dropped by 189.12 points, healthcare index was down 94.48 points, consumer durables index slipped by 76.40 points and metal index was down 59.13 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), up 4.92 percent at Rs.1,741.90; Bajaj Auto, up 3.68 percent at Rs.1,967.05; Hero MotoCorp, up 2.62 percent at Rs.1,772.15; Tata Motors, up 2.52 percent at Rs.294.70; and Gail India, up 2.51 percent at Rs.332.60.

The major losers were: BHEL, down 8.02 percent at Rs.173.75; Sun Pharma, down 3.35 percent at Rs.1,080.25; Sterlite Inds, down 2.93 percent at Rs.82.85; Jindal Steel, down 2.77 percent at Rs.210.60; and ICICI Bank, down 2.64 percent at Rs.959.05.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed Friday's trade down 1.48 percent; Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up by 0.08 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index was down by 1.52 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.21 percent down; Germany's DAX Index dropped 0.23 percent and the French CAC 40 Index was lower by 0.33 percent.