Sensex gains 156 points, oil and gas stocks rise

A day after it surged more than 280 points, a barometer index of the Indian equities markets continued its upward trajectory and gained 156 points in the mid-afternoon session on Friday.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) gained 156 points or 0.58 percent during the session under review.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also made gains during the mid-afternoon trade session. It was trading 40.20 points or 0.49 percent up at 8,214.80 points.

The Sensex which opened at 27,207.76 points, was trading at 27,271.86 points (at 1.10 p.m.), up 156.03 points or 0.58 percent from the previous day's close at 27,115.83 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 27,350.56 points and a low of 27,202.38 points in the intra-day trade so far.

On Thursday, the barometer index close the day's trade more than 280 points up a day after the US Federal Reserve decided not to raise interest rates in June.

The Fed had slashed interest rates to near 0 percent in December 2008 to help rejuvenate the battered economy.

The US Fed's stand that the rate hike might take place in the later part of the year might effect the Indian markets.

With higher interest rates in the US, the FPIs (Foreign Portfolio Investors) are expected to be led away from the emerging markets such as India.

During the intra-day trade on Friday, healthy buying took place in the oil and gas, capital goods, healthcare, information technology (IT) and metal stocks.

However, consumer durables, realty and power scrip came under selling pressure.

The S&P BSE oil and gas index gained by 88.77 points, followed by the capital goods index which edged-higher by 83.88 points, healthcare index augmented by 69.22 points, IT index increased by 68.23 points and metal index was up by 54.50 points.

The S&P BSE consumer durables index fell by 15.66 points, realty index lost by 6.60 points and power index slipped by 5.95 points.