Sensex gains more than 190 points; IT stocks rise (Roundup)

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) made healthy gains during Wednesday's trade session rising by more than 190 points during the day.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also made gains during the day's trade. It closed 54.10 points or 0.62 percent up at 8,714.40 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,601.49 points, closed the day's trade at 28,707.75 points, up 191.16 points or 0.67 percent from the previous day's close at 28,516.59 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 28,763.06 points and a low of 28,566.61 points in the intra-day trade.

On Tuesday the Indian markets had ended on a flat note after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), as expected, maintained status quo in key policy rates in its first bi monthly Monetary policy review.

The RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, who conducted the first bi-monthly review of the monetary policy for the current fiscal year, decided to retain the repurchase rate, the reverse repurchase rate, the cash reserve ratio and the statutory ratio at existing levels.

Charting Wednesday's trade, an analyst said the Indian markets opened on a positive note by tracking global cues.

"Markets maintained their positive trajectory today (Wednesday) with Sensex climbing 191 points or 0.67 percent to shut the day at 28,708 level," said Vineeta Mahnot, equity research analyst, Hem Securities.

"Pharma stocks were in focus today as the government has allowed pharmaceutical companies to hike rates of 509 essential medicines used for treating various ailments like diabetes, hepatitis and cancer by 3.84 percent with effect from April 1," Mahnot added.

Apart from S&P BSE Bank index, all other sector-based indices of the BSE made gains during the day's trade session. Healthy buying was observed in information technology (IT), metal, oil and gas, consumer durables, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and automobile sectors.

The S&P BSE IT index gained 224.45 points, metal index increased by 157.69, oil and gas index augmented by 146.84 points, consumer durables index rose by 123.21 points, FMCG index was higher by 118.19 and automobile index was up 108.26 points.

However, bank index slipped by 65.42 points.

The major Sensex gainers on Wednesday were: Coal India, up 5.73 percent at Rs.380; Reliance Industries, up 3.93 percent at Rs.865.50; Bharti Airtel, up 3.63 percent at Rs.419.25; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 2.25 percent at Rs.2,644.35; and DrReddy's Lab, up 2.10 percent at Rs.3,755.85.

The losers were: HDFC, down 2.22 percent at Rs.1,299.15; Sesa Sterlite, down 1.93 percent at Rs.193.55; ONGC, down 1.74 percent at Rs.312.85; Hero MotoCorp, down 1.32 percent at Rs.2,605.10; and Tata Power, down 0.96 percent at Rs.77.55.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei went up by 0.76 percent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed higher by 3.80 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index gained by 0.86 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was up by 0.45 percent and France's CAC 40 was marginally higher by 0.02 percent. However, Germany's DAX Index was down 0.34 percent at the closing in the Indian markets.