Nifty ends above 5750; banks, oil & gas, realty up

Indian equities closed near January 2008 high levels on Monday as foreign institutional investors remained bullish following better than expected economic data from across the globe.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty ended at 5760, up 119.95 points or 2.12 per cent. The index touched high of 5770.60 and low of 5639.20 in today’s trade.

Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex closed at 19208.33, up 408.67 points or 2.20 per cent. The sensitive index hit intraday high of 19243.44 and low of 18845.31.

BSE Midcap Index was up 0.75 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index moved 0.18 per cent higher.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Bankex gained 3.70 per cent, BSE Oil & gas Index advanced 2.56 per cent and BSE Realty Index advanced 2.32 per cent.

State Bank of India (5.83%), HDFC (5.60%), Kotak Bank (4.67%), Hindalco (4.61%) and Reliance Infrastructure (4.51%) were amongst the top Nifty gainers.

Idea Cellular (-2.48%), Reliance Communications (-2.02%), Wipro (-0.98%), Reliance Capital (-0.89%) and Suzlon Energy (-0.78%) resisted the upmove.

Market breadth was positive on the NSE with 1639 gainers against 1592 losers.

India’s Index of Industrial Production ((IP) for the month of July was reported Friday to have grown 13.8% beating market forecast of 8.4%. European markets also moved higher after Basel III norms for banks were announced. In the US, wholesale inventories rose 1.3% in July, much better than the forecasted 0.5% and US jobless claims fell to a two-month low.