Trimming initial gains on profit-booking, the BSE benchmark Sensex today closed over 80 points up, tracking a firm global trend as euro-zone debt worries eased after Greece shelved its plans for referendum on the financial bailout package.
The Bombay Stock Exchange index, Sensex, which had gained 17 points yesterday, rose 80.68 points to 17,562.61. Intra-day, it had touched a high of 17,702.26.
Similarly, the broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose 18.45 points to 5,284.20, after climbing to 5,326.45.
A firm Asian market and upward trend in Europe on the Greek Government’s decision not to hold referendum on the bailout package bolstered the investor sentiment.
However, brokers said that emergence of profit-taking by funds reduced the day’s gains.
Infosys, Jindal Steel, Hero MotoCorp, SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Sterlite Industries, Sun Pharma and Tata Steel pushed the Sensex up.
Of the 30 BSE index scrips, 22 gained while eight closed in the negative zone. Barring oil and gas, all the sectoral indices made gains.
However, public sector oil marketing companies BPCL, HPCL and IOC gained after they hiked petrol prices, a move that will cut their subsidy burden.
Our Bureau reports:
Hero Motocorp put up a star performance on the NSE today, gaining Rs 52.70 or 2.54 per cent to close at Rs 2,124.
Though the battle between the gainers and losers was evenly matched in that there were 27 gainers to 23 losers among the Nifty stocks, there were no significant value erosion other than Dr.Reddy’s that was down by Rs 20.75, over reports of some labour problem in one of its facilities, to close at Rs 1,619.55.
SBI gained Rs 30.75 to close at Rs 1,965.50 and Infosys was another major gainer, up by Rs 29.90 to end at Rs 2,832. Bajaj Auto was up by Rs 20.10 to close at Rs 1,748.
PNB, which has been under some selling pressure early this week, breached the Rs 1,000 mark to touch a high of Rs 1,002.90 but was unable to hold on to the gains and closed at Rs 979, a loss of Rs 8.80.
Maruti, Reliance, BPCL, Reliance Infra and Ranbaxy all ended in the red with marginal losses.