Sensex back in green; consumer goods stocks rally (Roundup)

Mumbai, May 22 (IANS) A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Thursday closed 76 points or 0.31 percent up, as consumer durables, metal and oil and gas stocks rallied.

On Wednesday, the index closed 78.86 points, or 0.32 percent, down -- in negative territory for the first time after four straight sessions of gains.

In Thursday's trade, healthy buying was observed in consumer durables, metal, oil and gas, bank and realty stocks.

However, information technology (IT) and technology, entertainment and media (TECK) sectors witnessed heavy selling.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 24,415.42 points, ended the day's trade at 24,374.40 points, up 76.38 points or 0.31 percent from the previous day's close at 24,298.02 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 24,524.76 points and a low of 24,326.48 points during the day.

"Despite strong global cues the markets ended on a slightly flattish note. Sentiment continues to remain positive, which resulted in the market breadth remaining in favour of advances," said Sanjeev Zarbade, vice president, private client group research, Kotak Securities.

The S&P BSE consumer durables index was up 527.25 points, metal index surged by 216.90 points, oil and gas index gained by 123.13 points, bank index was higher by 119.89 points, and realty index moved up by 101.61 points.

However, the IT index fell 25.80 points and TECK index was down 22.88 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed on a new record high. It was up 23.50 points or 0.32 percent at 7,276.40 points.

The prominent Sensex gainers included NTPC, up 5.31 percent at Rs.153.60; Maruti Suzuki, up 4.44 percent at Rs.2,264.45; Sesa Sterlite, up 3.91 percent at Rs.259.10; Tata Power, up 3.27 percent at Rs.99.45; and Gail India, up 3.00 percent at Rs.426.25.

Coal India went up 4.78 percent at Rs.389.95, on the back of speculation that the new government might break it up and sell assests.

Of the 30 Sensex scrips, 13 closed in the red. Among the major Sensex losers were Hindalco Inds, down 2.79 percent at Rs.155.15; BHEL, down 2.75 percent at Rs.263.80; Bharti Airtel, down 2.44 percent at Rs.332.40; HDFC, down 2.23 percent at Rs.919.65; and Wipro, down 1.74 percent at Rs.483.50.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 2.11 percent up, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up by 0.51 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.18 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.03 percent up and the French CAC 40 Index was lower by 0.26 percent. Germany's DAX Index had gained 0.03 percent at the closing bell here.