Sensex crosses 20,000-mark, first time since Jan 31

A benchmark index of the Indian equities markets Wednesday crossed the 20,000-level-mark for the first time in more than three months on the back of sustained buying from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and positive global cues.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) crossed the psychological mark in the late trading session before closing below the 20,000-mark.

Scrips of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), bank, oil and gas and healthcare rallied. However, capital goods, automobile, metal, public sector undertaking (PSUs) and power stocks plummeted.

The Sensex had last crossed the psychological mark Jan 31.

The sensitive index, which opened in the positive at 19,950.22 points, closed at 19,990.18 points, up 101.23 points or 0.51 percent from its previous day close at 19,888.95 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 20,037.27 points and low of 19,851.22 points in the intra-day trade.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended the day's trade 0.43 percent or 25.75 points up at 6,069.30 points.

On Tuesday, the Sensex had closed more than one percent up and touched its highest level in the last three months at 19,888.95 points. The Sensex had closed at 19,894.98 points on Jan 31.

Scrips of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), bank, oil and gas and healthcare rallied. However, capital goods, automobile, metal, public sector undertaking (PSUs) and power stocks plummeted.

The BSE FMCG index was up 95.03 points followed by bank index, up 16.22 points, and the oil and gas index, up 10.09 points, healthcare index, up 7.02 points.

The BSE capital goods index ended 64.98 points down, while the automobile index closed 51.28 points lower, followed by metal index, down 32.58 points, PSU index, down 9.28 points, and the power index, down 5.61 points.

The scrip of India's largest mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Wednesday closed 3.85 percent higher at Rs.885.60 after it reported an increase of 17 percent in its net profit which stood at Rs.1,555.21 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2013.

Of the 30 sensitive stocks on the BSE, 14 closed the day in positive territory. These included ITC, up 2.27 percent at Rs.342.80; HDFC Bank, up 1.38 percent at Rs.696.65; Hindustan Unilever, up 1.23 percent at Rs.586.70; and Hindalco Inds, up 0.83 percent at Rs.102.75.

The major Sensex losers were: Bharti Airtel, down 1.82 percent at Rs.324.05; Hero MotoCorp, down 1.78 percent at Rs.1,677; Tata Steel, down 1.45 percent at Rs.319.15; Mahindra and Mahindra, down 1.35 percent at Rs.946.10; and Jindal Steel, down 1.13 percent at Rs.329.25.

Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.74 percent higher, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng went up by 0.86 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index closed higher by 0.48 percent.

At the closing bell here, Britain's FTSE 100 was trading 0.23 percent up and so was German DAX, up 0.61 percent. The French CAC 40 was also ruling up 0.77 percent.