Equities close in green; consumer durables, oil & gas lift sentiments

Mumbai, Sep 5 (IANS) Boosted by positive European markets, persistent purchasing by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and healthy buying in consumer durables, oil and gas as well as banking stocks, key Indian equity indices -- the NSE Nifty50 and the BSE Sensex -- surged from the flat zone to close on a higher note on Tuesday.

According to market observers, index heavyweights on the BSE like Coal India, Reliance Industries, Adani Ports and Tata Motors aided the indices in their bull run.

The wider 51-scrip Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed above the 9,950-mark at 9,952.20 points -- up 39.35 points or 0.40 per cent.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 31,755.16 points, closed at 31,809.55 points -- up 107.30 points or 0.34 per cent from its previous close at 31,702.25.

The BSE market breadth was bullish -- 1,665 advances and 899 declines.

In terms of the broader market indices, the S&P BSE mid-cap index rose by 0.63 per cent and the small-cap index by 1.02 per cent.

"After the fall seen on Monday, markets bounced back on Tuesday to end with healthy gains. The gains came on the back of positive European markets," Deepak Jasani, Head - Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.

"Technically, with the Nifty bouncing back smartly after Monday's sharp fall, the bulls are not willing to give up easily," he added.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said: "Market started with a subdued bias but later recovered with a sign of improving bilateral relationship between India and China. Additionally, improving manufacturing and service data (August) and tax collection will redress concerns on valuation."

A key macro-economic data released during market hours on Tuesday revealed that the seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) stood at 47.5 in August, pointing to a second successive decline in output.

However, this indicated a softer rate of reduction compared with 45.9 in July.

The Nikkei India Manufacturing PMI -- released on September 1 -- stood at 51.2 in August, up from the index reading of 47.9 reported in July, signalling "a renewed improvement in the health of the sector".

On the currency front, the Indian rupee weakened by 7-8 paise to 64.13 against the US dollar from its previous close at 64.05-06.

In investments, provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold scrip worth Rs 379.16 crore while DIIs purchased stocks worth Rs 474.36 crore.

According to Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, on the global front Asian shares were mostly defensive on North Korea worries though MSCI's dollar-denominated index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up around 0.2 per cent due to gains in Chinese equities.

"In India, financials accounted for most of the gains. The Nifty Bank index rose as much as 0.6 per cent after ending 0.8 per cent lower in the previous session," Desai told IANS.

"Consumer durables stocks and realty stocks rose as BSE consumer durables index surged by 2.26 per cent and BSE realty index by 1.53 per cent," he added.

All the sub-indices on the BSE ended in the green, barring telecom index, which was down 22.88 points.

Sector-wise, the S&P BSE consumer durables index augmented by 409.57 points, oil and gas index by 154.48 points and banking index by 105.12 points.

Major Sensex gainers on Tuesday were: Coal India, up 2.96 per cent at Rs 253.70; Adani Ports, up 1.60 per cent at Rs 390.45; Bajaj Auto, up 1.58 per cent at Rs 2,959.40; Reliance Industries, up 1.34 per cent at Rs 1,633; and Dr. Reddy's Lab, up 0.89 per cent at Rs 2,208.55.

Major Sensex losers were: Bharti Airtel, down 2.25 per cent at Rs 406.50; Sun Pharma, down 1.43 per cent at Rs 493.40; Power Grid, down 0.71 per cent at Rs 215.35; Tata Motors (DVR), down 0.50 per cent at Rs 219.50; and Lupin, down 0.43 per cent at Rs 991.65.