Sensex extends gains for eighth straight session

Mumbai, June 23: Extending its gains for the eighth straight session, a benchmark index of the Indian equities market remained range-bound, but maged to close in the positive zone during the trade session on Tuesday. The sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closed margilly up for the eighth straight session on Tuesday with gains of over 70 points. The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the tiol Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed in the positive zone. It rose by 28.45 points or 0.34 percent at 8,381.55 points. The Sensex of the S&P BSE, which opened at 27,760.11 points, ended the day’s trade at 27,804.37 points, up 74.16 points or 0.27 percent from the previous day’s close at 27,730.21 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 27,882.66 points and a low of 27,666.59 points in the intra-day trade. On Monday, the Indian markets rallied sharply to gain 414 points, as investors’ optimism grew on the hopes that Greece and its creditors would strike a last-minute deal at a crucial emergency eurozone summit. Another positive development was the meteorological forecast that the June rainfall was likely to end with a 16 percent surplus over the long period average.

“Fince minister’s drive to sell India story to the foreign investors has provided additiol momentum to the recent rally,” said Vinod ir, head for fundamental research with Geojit BNP Paribas Fincial Services. “Much of this rally is led by higher liquidity in MF (Mutual Fund) and F&O (Future and Options), but overall turnover is light,” ir added. According to ir, the tailwinds like good development about monsoon till date, better retail inflation numbers and increase in crop prices have improved domestic sentiments. However, Gaurav Jain, director of Hem Securities, said that the renewed buying interest by the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) uplifted the sentiment.

The FPIs bought equities worth Rs.651.31 crore during the previous day and also took huge positions in F&O segment, ahead of the expiry which is scheduled on June 25. “Indian benchmarks traded in a rrow range throughout the trading session, though shutting the day on a positive note,” Jain said. Sector-wise, healthy buying was observed in capital goods, metal, oil and gas and bank sectors. However, stocks of information technology (IT), consumer durable and technology, entertainment and media (TECK) came under heavy selling pressure.

The S&P BSE capital goods index zoomed by 243.33 points, followed by metal index which augmented by 159.61 points, oil and gas index rose by 82.38 points and bank index was higher by 68.81 points. However, the S&P BSE IT index dropped 116.83 points, consumer durables index was lower by 46.80 points and TECK index was down by 46.42 points.

The major Sensex gainers in Tuesday’s trade were: Coal India, up 3.85 percent at Rs.415.15; Cipla, up 2.70 points at Rs.630.20; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), up 1.96 percent at Rs.1,765.05; Mahindra and Mahindra, up 1.91 percent at Rs.1,333.65; and NTPC, up 1.50 percent at Rs.139.15. The major Sensex losers were: Infosys, down 2.27 percent at Rs.1,001.15; Hero MotoCorp, down 2.22 percent at Rs.2,523.20; Lupin, down 2.12 percent at Rs.1,772.65; Bajaj Auto, down 1.00 percent at Rs.2,401.25; and BHEL, down 0.99 percent at Rs.244.05.

Among the Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei closed higher by 1.87 percent, Chi’s Shanghai Composite Index gained by 2.16 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up by 0.93 percent. In Europe, the London FTSE 100 index rose by 0.25 percent, the French CAC 40 gained by 1.27 percent and Germany’s DAX Index was up by 1.08 percent at the closing bell here. (IANS)