Sensex up 36 points; healthcare stocks rise (Roundup)

After five consecutive days of losses, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets ended Wednesday's trade in the positive zone -- up 36 points or 0.17 percent.

Healthy buying was observed in healthcare, automobile and metal stocks, while capital goods, consumer durables and realty companies came under selling pressure.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,767.42 points, closed at 20,729.38 points, up 36.14 points or 0.17 percent from its previous day's close at 20,693.24 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 20,786.41 points and a low of 20,688.18 points intra-day.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed trade 12.35 points or 0.20 percent up at 6,174.60 points.

In Wednesday's trade, the S&P BSE healthcare index was up 104.44 points followed by automobile index which gained 85.57 points and metal index which moved up by 41.18 points.

However, capital goods index was down by 133.33 points, consumer durables index was lower by 34.00 points and realty lost 6.19 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Coal India, up 4.77 percent at Rs.288.75; Cipla, up 3.38 percent at Rs.403.65; Gail India, up 2.49 percent at Rs.346.35; Tata Power, up 1.82 percent at Rs.81.00; and DrReddys Lab, up 1.62 percent at Rs.2,531.95.

The main losers were: Larsen and Toubro (L&T), down 2.03 percent at Rs.998.40; Axis Bank, down 1.74 percent at Rs.1,212.80; Sesa Sterlite, down 1.67 percent at Rs.191.60; BHEL, down 1.33 percent at Rs.163.05; and ONGC, down 1.09 percent at Rs.273.15.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 1.94 percent up and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.25 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index went down by 1.80 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.42 percent down. And, so were Germany's DAX Index, lower by 0.18 percent, and the French CAC 40 Index, edged lower by 0.12 percent.