Sensex closes flat; capital goods stocks gain

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SME Times News Bureau | 24 May, 2013
A benchmark index of the equities markets Friday closed flat, a day after the benchmark index shed nearly two percent on the report that the US may reverse its monetary stimulus programme that spooked markets elsewhere in the world.

Scrips of companies in sectors such as capital goods, bank, metal, consumer durables and power rallied. However, there was heavy selling in healthcare, information technology (IT) and technology, media and entertainment (TECk) stocks.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (S&P BSE Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,765.32 points, closed the day at 19,704.33 points, up 30 points or 0.15 percent from its previous day close at 19,674.33 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 19,833.14 points and low of 19,568.49 points in intra-day trade.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also showed upward movement and was trading 0.28 percent or 16.50 points up at 5,983.55 points.

The BSE capital goods index notched up 152.05 points, bank surged 138.68 points, metal was up at 136.76 points, consumer durables index was up 135.83 and power moved up 15.39 points.

However, healthcare index dipped 113.47 points, while IT was down by 44.56 and TECk fell 23.50 points.

Prominent Sensex gainers were: Tata Steel, up 4.56 percent at Rs.313.15; Tata Power, up 3.75 percent at Rs.91.40; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), up 2.70 percent at Rs.1,456.90; ICICI Bank, up 2.60 percent at Rs.1,204.00; and Sterlite Industries, up 1.63 percent at Rs.93.55.

Among the major Sensex losers were companies like Sun Pharma that dropped 3.67 percent to Rs.969.65; Hindalco Inds, down 1.70 percent to Rs.107.10; Cipla, down 1.63 percent to Rs.408.25; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), down 1.59 percent to Rs.1,470.00; and BHEL, down 1.51 percent to Rs.192.85.

Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.89 percent percent up, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng went 0.23 percent down. China's Shanghai Composite Index closed 0.57 percent higher.

European markets, however, were trading lower. Britain's FTSE 100 was trading 0.78 percent down while German DAX was 0.97 percent lower. The French CAC 40 had also slipped 0.12 percent.