Sensex rises 28pts, ends 2013 on a promising note with 9% gain

The Sensex today inched up by nearly 28 points to end at 21,170.68 in the last trading session of the year, which saw the benchmark notching up its second annual rise in a row.
Selective buying amid a firming global trend helped the BSE bluechip index end 2013 with nearly 9 per cent gain during a year where investor confidence recovered. In 2012, the Sensex had jumped nearly 26 per cent.
After a better start today, the 30-share closed higher by 27.67 points, or 0.13 per cent, at 21,170.68 led by stocks of power, refinery and healthcare sectors.
RIL, TCS and L&T helped lift Sensex. Tata Power and Wipro were among the biggest gainers in 17 constituents that rose.

Across market, investors were richer by over Rs 1 lakh crore with market capitalisation ending at Rs 70.4 lakh crore.
The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 12.90 points, or 0.21 per cent, to end at 6,304, after touching the day's high of 6,317.30. For the full year, Nifty gained 6.75 per cent.

Also, SX40 index of MCX Stock Exchange ended 29.99 points higher at 12,582.69.
Brokers said while trading was lacklustre, the market remained in positive terrain as investors picked fundamentally strong stocks.
Sentiment improved further on a firming trend in the Asian region and higher opening in Europe before American consumer confidence and housing data, they added.

Sectorally, the BSE Power sector index gained the most by 0.60 per cent, followed by Oil & Gas index (0.52 per cent), Healthcare index (0.21 per cent) and Capital Goods index ( 0.21 per cent).