Sensex, Nifty touch record highs (Intro-Roundup)

A benchmark index of the Indian stock markets Monday touched a new high of 22,795.58 points before closing at 22,764.83 points, as capital goods, metal and bank stocks rose sharply.

Markets were bullish ahead of the result season and lifting of ban on iron ore mining in Goa by the Supreme Court.

The ongoing polling exercise in which business-friendly Bharatiya Janata Party is reportedly gaining and pumping of foreign capital by foreign institution investors (FIIs) also led markets gain.

The 30-scrip sensitive index S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) which opened at 22,644.75 points, ended the day's trade at 22,764.83 points, up 135.99 points or 0.60 percent from its previous day's close at 22,628.84 points.

The Sensex hit an intra-day high of 22,795.58 points and a low of 22,636.75 points.

In the day's trade, capital goods, metal, bank, automobile and consumer durable stocks gained. However, information technology (IT), fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), technology, entertainment and media (TECK) and realty scrips came under sustained selling pressure.

The capital goods index of the BSE zoomed 351.13 points, followed by metal index which was up 228.47 points, bank index was higher by 196.51 points, automobile index rose 196.51 points and consumer durables index was up 27.58 points.

However, IT index was down 60.92 points, FMCG index fell 27.37 points, TECK index was lower by 8.91 points and realty index dipped 4.12 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) touched a record high of 6,822.60 points. It closed 38.25 points or 0.56 percent up at 6,817.65 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Sesa Sterlite, up 4.78 percent at Rs.201.80; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), up 4.04 percent at Rs.1,322.15; Mahindra and Mahindra, up 3.54 percent at Rs.1,032.65; Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL), up 3.07 percent at Rs.186.60; and Bharti Airtel, up 3.00 percent at Rs.334.85.

Major Sensex losers included: Wipro, down 6.65 percent at Rs.546.60; Hindustan Unilever, down 1.69 percent at Rs.599.20; Sun Pharma, down 0.44 percent at Rs.621.55; HDFC, down 0.35 percent at Rs.877; and Tata Power, down 0.30 percent at Rs.83.45.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed lower at 0.03 percent but China's Shanghai Composite Index was higher by 0.28 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was, meanwhile, down by 1.52 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.62 percent up, Germany's DAX Index was higher by 0.99 percent and the French CAC 40 Index had gained by 0.59 percent when markets closed here.