Sensex zooms 375 points up; IT stocks gain

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Monday notched up 375 points as information technology (IT) and bank stocks gained.

The markets were upbeat on the hope that low food prices will cool off the wholesale inflation for December, the data for which is expected on Tuesday.

India's headline inflation based on wholesale prices rose to 7.52 percent in November due to high fuel and food prices.

Dipen Shah of Kotak Securities said markets rose sharply due to weak payroll data in the US, which re-ignited optimism that the withdrawal of stimulus would be delayed.

"Expectations on the CPI, consumer price index, inflation data which is due post-market hours, also kept the markets up," he said.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,850.54 points, closed at 21,134.21 points, up 375.72 points or 1.81 percent from its previous day's close at 20,758.49 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 21,169.08 points and a low of 20,850.54 intra-day.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed trade 101.30 points or 1.64 percent up at 6,272.75 points.

In Monday's trade, the S&P BSE IT index was up 271.60 points followed by bank index which gained 251.25 points. The oil and gas index moved higher by 191.73 points, and so were capital goods index, up 145.68 points, and technology, entertainment and media (TECk) index, up 123.57 points.

However, healthcare index was down by 69.87 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 3.88 percent at Rs.2,370.30; Infosys, up 3.29 percent at Rs.3,665.70; ICICI Bank, up 3.09 percent at Rs.1,056.20; ONGC, up 2.94 percent at Rs.292.15; and Reliance Industries, up 2.58 percent at Rs.879.

The main losers were: Tata Power, down 1.99 percent at Rs.78.80; Sun Pharma, down 1.19 percent at Rs.602.45; Hindustan Unilever, down 0.71 percent at Rs.546.40; Maruti Suzuki, down 0.66 percent at Rs.1,782.80; and Hindalco Inds, down 0.41 percent at Rs.110.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.20 percent up, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.19 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index went down by 0.19 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.01 percent up. Similarly, Germany's DAX Index was higher by 0.16 percent and the French CAC 40 Index edged up by 0.14 percent.