Sensex ends 93 points higher

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed 93 points higher yesterday on firm global cues and good buying in IT, consumer durables, and oil and gas. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Mumbai Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,288.34 points, closed 17278.85 points, up 0.55% or 93.84 points from its previous day’s close at 17,185.01 points. The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 0.51% higher at 5,242.70 points. The BSE IT index was up 91.81 points and so were consumer durable and oil and gas indices at 86.80 points and 99.31 points, respectively. The major Sensex gainers were Infosys, up 3.08% at Rs.2,242.85; Sterlite Inds, up 2.42% at Rs.105.85; Tata Power, up 2.34% at Rs.100.70; BHEL, up 2.18% at Rs.234.65 and Bajaj Auto, up 1.76% at Rs.1,549.20. The biggest loser was Maruti Suzuki, down 8.74% at Rs.1,117.35 due to labour-management conflict at the firm’s Manesar plant. One person was killed and over two dozen people were injured in a fire in automobile major Maruti’s plant at Manesar in Haryana Wednesday as thousands of protesting workers locked its main gates trapping officials inside, according to authorities. The other losers included Bharti Airtel, down 2.34% at Rs.317; Hero MotoCorp, down 1.37% at Rs.2,087.50; SBI, down 1.29% at Rs.2,157.75 and Dr Reddy’s Lab, down 0.98% at Rs.1,655.60. Among other Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.79% up and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 1.66% up. China’s Composite index was 0.73% up. At the closing bell here, European markets were in the green. France’s CAC was up 0.72% while Germany’s DAX was trading 1.07% higher. Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.32%. from gulf times.