Sensex up 187 points; IT stocks rise

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex), made healthy gains in late-afternoon trade on Wednesday and was trading 187 points up during the session.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also made gains during the late-afternoon trade session. It was trading 52.95 points or 0.61 percent up at 8,713.25 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,601.49 points, was trading at 28,703.19 points (at 3.00 p.m.) in the late-afternoon trade session, up 186.60 points or 0.65 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 so far.

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

The S&P BSE IT index gained 200.02 points, metal index increased by 152.91, oil and gas index augmented by 139.47 points, capital goods index rose by 137.34 points, consumer durable index was higher by 131.89 and FMCG index was up 116.01 points.

However, bank index slipped by 59.37 points.

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