By IANS
Mumbai : Indian equities ended the day Wednesday with marginal gains after starting the day on a firm note with a benchmark index finally registering a rise of only 0.79 percent from the previous day’s close.
With strong cues from other Asian markets, Indian equities started the day with a positive gap but soon shed most of their early gains.
A key index, which had surged past the psychologically important 16,000-mark in early trade, fell below that level later as index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries and ICICI bank gave up most of its early gains.
The 30-share Sensitive Index or Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened at 16,023.30 points and notched a high of 16,236.70 before closing at 15,750.40 points. It went up by 123.78 points at the day’s close or 0.79 percent.
The S&P Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), which opened at 4,741.40 points, closed at 4,754.20, after touching the day’s high of 4,916.75. It went up by 14.63 points or 0.13 percent.
The BSE Midcap index, which closed at 6,412.97 points, was up by 17.87 points or 0.28 percent while the BSE Smallcap index, which closed at 7,912.14 points, went up by 50.38 points or 0.64 percent.
On the BSE, the market breadth was positive with low trading volumes. As many as 1,764 shares advanced, 904 declined and 48 maintained status quo.
The top gainers of the day were HDFC at Rs.2,470.25 up by 4.68 percent, Infosys at Rs.1,481.95, gaining 4.26 percent and ICICI bank at Rs.784.20l, up 3.65 percent.
The top losers included Reliance Energy at Rs.1,230.25, down by 4.51 percent, Tata Steel at Rs.645.95 down by 3.21 percent, and BHEL at Rs.1,852.50 slid by 1.44 percent.