Indian equities on a big upswing

By siliconindia   |   Friday, 16 May 2008, 17:38 IST
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Mumbai: Indian equities markets, which opened in the green Thursday, performed very well throughout the day and a key index climbed over 375 points, mirroring cues from other Asian markets. The markets were strongly supported by capital goods, realty, oil and gas, banking, power and metal scrips. All sectoral indices barring FMCG closed in the green. Both Sensex and Nifty indices managed to remain above the 17,000 and 5,000 mark respectively during the day. The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened at 17,084.89 points and notched a high of 17,366.19 before closing at 17,353.54. It gained 375.19 points or 2.21 percent at the day's close, compared to the closing figure Wednesday. The S&P CNX Nifty index on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), which opened at 5,010.90 points, closed at 5,115.25 after touching the day's high at 5,118.55 points. At ended with a gain of 103.50 points or 2.07 percent from its previous close. The BSE Midcap index, which closed at 7,080.25 points, gained 90.44 points or 1.29 percent. Similarly, the BSE Smallcap index, which closed at 8,546.41 points, gained 111.92 points or 1.33 percent. On BSE, the market breadth was strong. A total of 1,772 shares advanced, 909 declined and 74 remained unchanged. Other global markets, barring CAC, also closed in the green Thursday. On BSE, the top gainers of the day included Hindalco at 204.05, up 6.11 percent; Reliance Communication at 589.00, up 5.31 percent; and Reliance at 2622.65, up 3.66 percent. A noteworthy gainer of the day was Larsen & Toubro whose ready-mix-concrete business was acquired by the French cement giant Lafarge for 14.80 billion Thursday morning. Its stock soared to 2,962.50, up 4.67 percent. The top losers included Satyam at 483.90, down 3.43 percent; Hindustan Unilever Ltd at 238.60, down 1.85 percent; Tata Motors at 662.65, down 1.47 percent and Tata Steel at 881.90, down 0.50 percent.