Oil and gas stocks zoom as Sensex, Nifty set new records

Mumbai, June 6 :

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Friday touched a new record high of 25,419.14 points, before ending marginally lower at 25,396.46 points — a new closing high.

The Sensex maintained its early morning gains of over 200 points and extended it to 376.95 points at the end of the day’s trade.

The Sensex broke its May 16 record high of 25,375.63 points reached after the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party scored a landslide victory in the general election.

The rally was led by oil and gas, bank, automobile and healthcare sectors, a day after the benchmark index closed above 25,000 point mark for the first time.

However, heavy selling pressure was observed in information technology (IT), metal and technology, entertainment and media (TECK) stocks.

On Thursday, the benchmark index had risen 213.68 points or 0.86 percent on strong buying in metal, oil and gas and capital goods stocks.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 25,204.95 points, ended the trade at 25,396.46 points, up 376.95 points or 1.51 percent from the previous day’s close at 25,019.51 point.

The Sensex touched a high of 25,419.14 points and a low of 25,129.76 points in intra-day trade.

The S&P BSE oil and gas index shot up 550.98 points, followed by bank index which was higher by 287.95 points, automobile index increased by 228.09 points, healthcare index gained 141.67 points, capital goods index was up 131.93 points, consumer durables index surged 130.28 points and realty index rose by 101.67 points.

However, IT index lost 53.16 points, metal index decreased by 46.22 points and TECK index declined by 14.01 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also ended with healthy gains and touched a new high of 7,592.70 points surpassing its previous record high of 7,563.50 points. It ended the trade up 109.30 points or 1.46 percent at 7,583.40 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: ONGC, up 10.57 percent at Rs.464; Gail India, up 7.52 percent at Rs.420.35; Hero MotoCorp, up 3.68 percent at Rs.2,682.65; Reliance Industries, up 2.97 percent at Rs.1,119.85; and HDFC, up 2.96 percent at Rs.935.10.

The losers were: Sesa Sterlite, down 2.53 percent at Rs.306.50; Infosys, down 1.26 percent at Rs.2,999.80; Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), down 1.02 percent at Rs.2,084.05; Hindalco Inds, down 0.32 percent at Rs.168.90; and Bharti Airtel, down 0.04 percent at Rs.355.80.

Among the Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.01 percent down. China’s Shanghai Composite Index was lower by 0.54 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended 0.69 percent down.

In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was trading 0.33 percent up and Germany’s DAX Index was higher by 0.30 percent, while the French CAC 40 Index was up by 0.38 percent at the closing bell here.

(IANS)