Mumbai, June 27 (IANS) A benchmark index for Indian equities markets Wednesday closed 61 points up, led by buying in metal, power and IT stocks, on hopes of some movement on the reforms and policy front as the prime minister took charge of the finance ministry.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 16,975.76 points in the morning, closed at 16,967.76 points, up 0.36 percent or just 61.18 points from its previous close of 16,906.58 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 17,029.27 points and a low of 16,930.80 points intra-day. The BSE midcap index rose 21.41 points while the smallcap index gained 20.34 points.
The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 0.41 percent higher at 5,141.90 points.
BSE metal index was up 158.87 points, power index was up 19.45 points, IT index was up 52.73 points.
The major Sensex gainers were Tata Steel, up 2.51 percent at Rs.420.70; Tata Power, up 2.25 percent at Rs.97.65; Sterlite Inds, up 1.79 percent at Rs.99.70; Sun Pharma, up 1.34 at Rs.625; and Hindalco Inds, up 1.30 percent at Rs.116.75.
The main losers were Tata Motors, down 3.06 percent at Rs.239.05; Bharti Airtel, down 0.42 percent at Rs.305; Wipro, down 0.37 percent at Rs.399.55; Mahindra and Mahindra, down 0.25 percent at Rs.692.15; and SBI, down 0.13 percent at Rs.2,113.40.
At the closing bell here, European markets were trading marginally higher amid volatility ahead of the European Union summit beginning June 28 in Brussels.
Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE 100 were trading 0.32 and 0.59 percent higher respectively, while France's CAC was up 0.42 percent.
