Sensex gains 137 points; bank stocks rise

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Tuesday closed 137 points, or nearly one percent, up a day after the central bank said that it will buy bonds to provide liquidity.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Monday said it will infuse Rs.10,000 crore into the system by purchasing government securities through open-market operations (OMO) next week to ease liquidity constraints.

The bullish sentiment in the market was also supported by Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram's comments that steps would be taken to incentivise growth.

He added that the government expects current account deficit (CAD) to be less than $70 billion for the current fiscal, which will be fully financed without dipping into foreign reserves.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,452.05 points, closed at 19,517.15 points, up 137.38 points or 0.71 percent from Monday's close at 19,379.77 points.

The Sensex saw a high of 19,532.91 points and a low of 19,264.72 in the day's trade.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also rose by 0.78 percent or 44.75 points at 5,780.05 points.

Sector-wise, bank, capital goods, automobile, consumer durables and realty scrips gained. However, oil and gas, metal, public sector undertakings (PSU) and power stocks lost.

The S&P BSE bank index rose by 292.86 points, capital goods index closed the day's trade up 117.63 points, followed by automobile index which was higher by 99.22 points, consumer durables index was up 36.27 points and realty index increased by 31.49 points.

Heavy selling pressure was observed in oil and gas index which fell 51.22 points in the day's trade, the metal index was down 25.13 points, PSU index was lower by 9.68 points and the power index was 8.94 points down.

The prominent Sensex gainers were: HDFC Bank, up 3.03 percent at Rs.611.70; BHEL, up 2.95 percent at Rs.141.40; ICICI Bank, up 2.94 percent at Rs.911; HDFC, up 2.73 percent at Rs.784.40; and Bajaj Auto, up 2.35 percent at Rs.2,035.

The losers were: Tata Power, down 3.82 percent at Rs.78; Sesa Goa, down 2.91 percent at Rs.175.45; NTPC, down 2.87 percent at Rs.143.95; ONGC, down 2.11 percent at Rs.262.15; and Jindal Steel, down 1.30 percent at Rs.232.40.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.20 percent up. So were South Korea's KOSPI, up by 0.10 percent, and Singapore's Straits Times index,up 0.43 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.17 percent down, while Germany's DAX Index was higher by 0.62 percent. The French CAC 40 was also up by 0.76 percent.