Sensex ends in green; bank stocks gaining (Roundup)

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Wednesday closed trade 96.19 points or 0.37 percent up, even as capital goods stocks plunged, snapping two days of decline.

Selling pressure was observed in information technology (IT) scrips, while marginally good buying was observed in bank, healthcare and consumer durables stocks.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 26,005.14 points, ended trade at 26,087.42 points (provisional), up 96.19 points or 0.37 percent from the previous day's close at 25,991.23 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 26,113.48 points and a low of 25,850.04 points intra-day.

The S&P BSE capital goods index plunged 725.96 points and IT index dropped 24.28 points. However, Bank index gained 273.12 points, while healthcare index was up 164.55 points and consumer durables index gained 125.47 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was up 42.70 points or 0.55 percent at 7,791.40 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Bharti Airtel, up 5.26 percent at Rs.373; Hero MotoCorp, up 2.69 percent at Rs.2,601.35; ICICI Bank, up 2.62 percent at Rs.1,489.55; Hindalco Inds, up 2.53 percent at Rs.192.60; and DrReddys Lab, up 2.01 percent at Rs.2,822.25.

The losers were: Larsen and Toubro (L&T), down 7.32 percent at Rs.1,524.40; Tata Power, down 1.53 percent at Rs.99.60; Wipro, down 0.85 percent at Rs.550.40; State Bank of India (SBI), down 0.78 percent at Rs.2,470.95; and Tata Steel, down 0.48 percent at Rs.544.90.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei was up 0.18 percent, and Hong Kong's Heng Seng was 0.37 percent higher. China's Shanghai Composite Index was, however, 0.09 percent down.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was down 0.04 percent while Germany's DAX Index gained 0.21 percent at the closing bell here. There was no movement in the French CAC 40.