Mumbai, Jan 2 (IANS) The New Year began with a bang for Indian equities as a key index, powered by pharmaceuticals, consumer goods and power stocks, scaled a new all-time peak on the second day of trading before closing a tad lower.
The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) climbed to a new high above the 20,500-point mark at 20529.48 points during intra-day trade Wednesday.
The index finally closed the day at 20,465.30 points, up 164.59 points, or 0.81 percent, over the previous close of 20,300.71 points. The gainers and losers were evenly matched with a ratio of 15:14, while one stock ended unchanged.
The markets opened on a strong note with buying interest in some heavyweights, after a modest gain of 13.72 points or 0.07 percent Tuesday, but dipped into the red after two hours of trading.
Then onward, there was sustained rally to the highest-ever level, before the ending slightly lower. Among the stocks that traded on the bourse Wednesday, 2,010 ended with gains, 919 ended lower, while 19 remained unchanged.
Among the 13 sector-specific indices, that for banking rose the most, up 3.13 percent, followed by those for realty, up 2.93 percent, state-run units, up 1.32 percent and healthcare, up 1.27 percent.
The index for information technology shed the most points, down 0.46 percent, followed by those for technology, down 0.32 percent and consumer goods, down 0.21 percent.
The top five gainers among the Sensex shares were led by Housing Development Finance Corp, followed by Tata Motors, Reliance Energy, Cipla and ICICI Bank. The losers were led by Satyam Computer.
State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, Hindustan Unilever, Reliance Communications, Wipro, HDFC Bank, Mahindra and Mahindra, Associated Cement and Tata Consultancy Services also ended in the red.