Sensex rises 249 points; bank stocks gain

A benchmark index of the Indian equities markets Thursday jumped 249 points or 1.20 percent, its highest closing in a month on back of healthy buying support for bank, capital goods and oil and gas stocks.

Markets reacted positively to exit poll results which predicted a strong performance of the key opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in four out of five states where elections were held recently.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened sharply higher at 20,992.25 points, closed at 20,957.81 points, up 249.10 points or 1.20 percent from its previous day's close at 20,708.71 points.

The benchmark Sensex breached the psychological resistance level of 21,000 points and touched a high of 21,165.60 intra-day, gaining 456 points. It touched an intra-day low of 20,929.20 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed 80.15 points or 1.30 percent higher at 6,241.10 points.

There was strong buying support in banking, capital goods, oil and gas, metal and public sector undertakings (PSUs) stocks. However, healthcare, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and information technology (IT) stocks declined.

The S&P BSE bank index soared 565.50 points, followed by capital goods index which gained 353.09 points, oil and gas index was up 107.09 points, metal index which closed Thursday's trade 105.66 points up and PSU index which edged higher by 87.34 points.

However, healthcare index declined by 141.01 points, FMCG index was down 60.39 points and IT index closed 42.80 points lower.

Major Sensex gainers were: ICICI Bank, up 6.66 percent at Rs.1,136.10; HDFC Bank, 4.52 percent at Rs.687.75; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), up 4.49 percent at Rs.1,086.65; BHEL, up 3.93 percent at Rs.170.55; and Maruti Suzuki, up 3.67 percent at Rs.1,701.45.

The main losers were: Sun Pharma, down 2.24 percent at Rs.578.25; DrReddysLab, down 1.52 percent at Rs.2,413.15; ITC, down 1.39 percent at Rs.308.90; NTPC, down 0.96 percent at Rs.144.05; and Hindustan Unilever, down 0.90 percent at Rs.566.40.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 1.50 percent down and China's Shanghai Composite Index was lower by 0.21 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.07 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.01 percent down, Germany's DAX Index was higher by 0.10 percent and the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.01 percent.