Sensex closes marginally higher; consumer durable stocks gain

A benchmark index of Indian equities market Wednesday ended the day's trade marginally higher than the previous day's close upon hopes of continuation of the US central bank's bond-buying programme.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,224.09 points, closed the day's trade at 19,245.70 points, up 22.42 points or 0.12 percent from its previous day's close of 19,223.28 points.

"While the markets will watch the Fed's decision very carefully as it will have a profound impact on global liquidity, there are hopes that the Fed's will continue the bond-buying program," said Dipen Shah, head, group research, Kotak Securities.

"Any reversal in the decision will effect international liquidity scenario, whereby there will be a withdraw of liquidity in the international system, this will definitely impact the Indian markets in a negative way as foreign investors will pull out."

According to market analysts, the decision will also impact the value of rupee which fell to 58.91 against a dollar Wednesday, fractionally less than the record low of 58.98 hit last week.

The partially convertible rupee opened weak at 58.82 against a dollar after hitting a record closing low of 58.77 in the previous day.

The Sensex touched a high of 19,274.26 points and a low of 19,100.13 points in the day's trade.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended 0.15 percent or 8.65 points up at 5,822.25 points.

The S&P BSE automobile index plunged 73.30 points, while healthcare index decreased by 25.05 points and the PSU index moved down by 21.82 points.

However, the consumer durables index was up 129.37 points, metal index was higher by 102.45 points, oil and gas index edged higher by 47.99 points, bank index was up 34.91 points and TECk index closed the day's trade up 13.02 points.

The prominent Sensex gainers were: Bharti Airtel, up 2.83 percent at Rs.299.70; Hindalco Inds, up 2.66 percent at Rs.104.20; Sterlite Inds, up 2.65 percent at Rs.85.25; Jindal Steel, up 2.52 percent at Rs.245.80; and Tata Steel, up 2.05 percent at Rs.290.55.

The main losers were: Tata Motors, down 1.80 percent at Rs.291.75; DrReddys Lab, down 1.55 percent at Rs.2,099.10; NTPC, down 1.39 percent at Rs.144.95, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), down 1.33 percent at Rs.1,429.10; and Hero MotoCorp, down 1.26 percent at Rs.1,619.60.

Among other Asian markets, Japanese Nikkei was up by 1.83 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.73 percent. However, the Chinese Hang Seng dipped by 1.13 percent.

The European markets were in the red. While London's FTSE 100 was trading down by 0.49 percent, Germany's DAX Index was lower by 0.26 percent and France's CAC 40 Index was 0.61 percent down.