Sensex gains 338 points; bank stocks rise (Roundup)

Snapping a four-day losing streak, a benchmark index of the Indian stock markets closed Tuesday's trade 337.58 points or 1.35 percent up as good buying took place in banking and oil and gas scrips.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex (sensitive index) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 25,115.83 points, closed the trade at 25,368.90 points, up 337.58 points or 1.35 percent from its previous day's close at 25,031.32 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 25,414.69 points and a low of 25,115.83 points intra-day.

"Markets rose sharply on the back of a marginal reduction in crude prices and stable global markets. Several stocks moved up after consolidating over the past one week," said Dipen Shah of Kotak Securities.

"The geo-political issues globally have kept the rupee under pressure over the past few sessions. The rupee was relatively stable at around the 60 per USD mark."

The BSE bankex gained 261.60 points, capital goods index surged 195.56 points, oil and gas index went up by 244.61 points, metal index increased 144.93 points, consumer durables index moved up by 205.19 points, and auto index inched up by 158.71 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also ended Tuesday's trade 86.85 points or 1.16 percent up at 7,580.20 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Gail India, up 4.56 percent at Rs.459.65; HDFC, up 2.81 percent at Rs.993.95; BHEL, up 2.48 percent at Rs.250.40; Stat Bank of India (SBI), up 2.24 percent at Rs.2,659.50; and Axis Bank, up 2.19 percent at Rs.1,924.65.

The losers were: Sun Pharma, down 0.85 percent at Rs.627.60; Infosys, 0.64 percent at RS.3,210.30; Hindustan Unilever, down 0.01 percent at Rs.617.20; and Wipro, down 0.01 percent at Rs.531.30.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.05 percent up, while China's Shanghai Composite Index ended 0.47 percent higher and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.33 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.16 percent down and Germany's DAX Index was marginally higher by 0.02 percent, while the French CAC 40 Index gained 0.17 percent at the closing bell here.

--Indo-Asian News Servive

rv/srj/vt