By IANS,
Mumbai: Wiping out early gains, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets was trading 25 points down in late afternoon trade Thursday. Oil and gas and IT stocks were the worst performers.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,659.75 points, was ruling at 18,607.20 points, 24.97 points or 0.13 percent down from its previous day’s close at 18,632.17 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 18,735.95 points and a low of 18,592.61 points in intra-day trade. The BSE midcap index was up 28.13 points while the smallcap index was 16.17 points high.
The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was also ruling 0.17 percent down at 5,653.55 points.
On the sectoral front, the BSE oil and gas index was down 130.73 points and IT index was down 40.91 points.
The major Sensex gainers were Tata Power, up 5.11 percent at Rs.107.90; Larsen and Toubro, up 1.68 percent at Rs.1,588; Mahindra and Mahindra, up 1.68 percent at Rs.860.45; Maruti Suzuki, 1.15 percent at Rs.1,329.35; and SBI, up 0.98 percent at Rs.2,250.
The main losers were ONGC, down 2.01 percent at Rs.275.40; BHEL, down 1.66 percent at Rs.248.90; Infosys, down 1.42 percent at Rs.2,550.10; RIL, down 1.24 percent at Rs.833.65; and Wipro, down 1.12 percent at Rs.375.45.
Among other Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.48 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was trading 1.14 percent higher. Shanghai’s composite index was also up 2.60 percent.
European markets too opened in green. France’s CAC was up 0.28 percent and so was Germany’s DAX, up 0.32 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 was trading 0.18 percent higher.