Mumbai, March 24 (IANS) Mirroring strong Asian cues, Indian stock markets closed in the green Monday though key sector stocks witnessed selling.
The markets that opened in the green maintained the tempo although mid-cap and small-cap indices ended in the red. Important sectors like metals, realty, consumer durables and power witnessed offloading by investors.
The benchmark 30-share Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened at 15,093.77 points and notched a high of 15,351.31 before closing at 15,289.40 points. It gained 294.57 points or 1.96 percent at the day’s close.
The S&P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), which opened at 4,576.80 points, closed at 4,609.85 after touching the day’s high at 4,649.45 points. At close, it registered a rise of 35.85 points or 0.78 percent.
However, the BSE Midcap index, which closed at 5,805.53 points, was down 158.57 points or 2.66 percent.
Similarly, the BSE Smallcap index, which closed at 6,950.12 points, went down 272.08 points or 3.77 percent.
On the BSE, the market breadth was extremely low with low trading volumes. A total of 535 shares advanced, 2,149 shares declined and 33 shares remained unchanged.
All other Asian markets barring Nikkie 225 closed in the green Monday.
The top gainers of the day included HDFC at Rs.2,384.05, up 7.73 percent, Wipro at Rs.398.75, up 5.88 percent, HDFC Bank at Rs.1,337.45, up 5.31 percent and ICICI Bank at Rs.804.55, up 4.98 percent.
The top losers of the day were Tata Steel at Rs.592.45, down 7.04 percent, Reliance Energy at Rs.1,150.90, down 4.61 percent, DLF at Rs.598.10, down 4.00 percent and Jaiprakash Associates at Rs.200.30, down 1.81 percent.