Sensex closes 330 points up; bank stocks rally (Roundup)

Mumbai, June 17 (IANS) After two consecutive sessions of losses, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets Tuesday closed trade in the green, gaining 330 points or 1.31 percent, as bank and oil and gas stocks rallied.

Markets went up recouping early losses as capital goods, metal and automobile scrip too climbed.

The rally comes after two straight session of losses amidst weak global cues as a result of the worsening security in Iraq and the US threatening intervention with crude oil prices scaling to a nine-month high.

However, selling pressure was observed in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 25,189.46 points, ended the trade at 25,521.19 points, up 330.71 points or 1.31 percent from previous day's close at 25,190.48 point.

The Sensex touched a high of 25,545.88 points and a low of 25,104.50 points during the trade so far.

The markets were reassured by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan, who said at an industry event that India was better prepared to deal with external shocks than last year.

"Markets rose sharply in the final hour of trading after remaining almost flat for the most part of the day. The rise was a result of some fund buying in the large cap stocks," said Dipen Shah, head of private client group research, Kotak Securities.

"The rupee fell at the start of trading before recovering quite a bit mid-day, likely due to the participation by government banks and USD selling by exporters."

The S&P BSE bank index was up 392.23 points, followed by oil and gas index which moved higher by 324.86 points, capital goods index rose 302.51 points, metal index gained 207.76 points and automobile index surged 95.20 points.

However, FMCG index lost 11.71 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to closed trade by making healthy gains. It was up 98.15 points or 1.30 percent at 7,631.70 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: ONGC, up 4.07 percent at Rs.444.55; Axis Bank, up 3.79 percent at Rs.1,839.45; State Bank of India (SBI), up 2.91 percent at Rs.2,654.40; Coal India, up 2.89 percent at Rs.400.65; and BHEL, up 2.84 percent at Rs.247.95.

The losers were: Mahindra and Mahindra, down 1.66 percent at Rs.1,180.80; Hero MotoCorp, 0.83 percent at RS.2,589.20; Dr Reddy's Lab, down 0.58 percent at Rs.2,409; Hindustan Unilever, down 0.53 percent at Rs.629.95; and Bajaj Auto, down 0.47 percent at Rs.2,162.40.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.29 percent up. China's Shanghai Composite Index was lower by 0.92 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.42 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.08 percent up and Germany's DAX Index was higher by 0.21 percent, while the French CAC 40 Index gained 0.20 percent at the closing bell here.