Sensex gains 66 points in special trading

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets gained 66 points higher in a special trading session on Saturday. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,701.07 points, closed at 17,749.65 points, 0.37 per cent or 65.92 points up from its previous day’s close at 17,683.73 points. The 90-minute special session was conducted to test BSE’s disaster recovery software. The volume of trade looked thin as it was not a working day for most brokerages and foreign institutional investors. The Sensex touched a high of 17,773.15 points and a low of 17,694.83 points in trade. The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 0.31 per cent up at 5,358.70 points. On the sectoral front, the BSE health care index was up 91.77 points, metal index was up 94.61 points and the consumer durable index was up 48.27 points. The major Sensex gainers were Cipla, up 2.65 per cent at Rs390.75; Dr Reddys Lab, up 2.20 per cent at Rs.1,734; Sterlite Inds, up 1.92 per cent at Rs98.30; Hindalco Inds, up 1.62 per cent at Rs106.85; Jindal Steel, up 1.35 per cent at Rs352.20. The losers were BHEL, down 1.15 per cent at Rs202.50; NTPC, down 0.55 per cent at Rs171.05; Bharti Airtel, down 0.39 per cent at Rs254.55 and Coal India,down 0.22 per cent at Rs360.35. From gulftoday