Mumbai, April 19 (IANS) Expectations of healthy quarterly earning results coupled with a rebound in commodity prices and broadly positive global indices pushed the Indian equity market to close at its highest level in the last seven weeks on Thursday.
"Both the Nifty and the Sensex closed the day at seven week high levels. Positive global cues supported the markets," Deepak Jasani, Head, Retail Research, HDFC securities told IANS.
Index-wise, the wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed higher by 39.10 points, or 0.37 per cent, at 10,565.30 points.
The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 34,403.67 points, closed at 34,427.29 points -- up 95.61 points, or 0.28 per cent, from its previous session's close.
The Sensex touched a high of 34,478.82 points and a low of 34,358.91 during the intra-day trade.
The BSE market breadth was bullish with 1,265 advances and 1,082 declines. The market breadth on the NSE was also bullish during the day.
In the broader markets, the S&P BSE mid-cap index closed higher by 0.63 per cent and the small-cap index by 0.60 per cent.
"Markets ended in green, despite volatility continuing in the last half of weekly expiry. Investors sentiment was optimistic ahead of quarterly earnings of some key companies, including TCS, which will release its results later in the day," said Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls.
On the currency front, the Indian rupee weakened by 13 paise to 65.80 against the US dollar from its previous close at 65.67.
"Recent drop in rupee over the last one week... is on back of a combination of factors such as hardening of crude oil prices which is likely to put pressure on India's deficit coupled with US action in Syria and increase in political activity ahead of upcoming Karnataka elections," Salil Datar, CEO and Executive Director, Raha Advisors told IANS.
In terms of investments, provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors sold scrip worth Rs 624.99 crore, while the domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth Rs 448.61 crore.
Sector-wise, the S&P BSE metal index rose by 632.58 points, followed by capital goods which gained 203.34 points and IT stocks which edged up by 115.48 points.
On the other hand, the S&P BSE consumer durables index fell by 195.89 points, oil and gas index by 191.12 points and energy index by 24.05 points.
The major Sensex gainers on Thursday were Tata Steel, up 3.17 per cent at Rs 620.55; Yes Bank, up 2.83 per cent at Rs 318.00; Bharti Airtel, up 2.64 per cent at Rs 394.95; Larsen and Toubro, up 1.74 per cent at Rs 1,384.30; and Power Grid, up 1.61 per cent at Rs 208.20 per share.
The top losers on Sensex were Axis Bank, down 1 per cent at Rs 513.50; Coal India, down 0.77 per cent at Rs 282.85; HDFC, down 0.65 per cent at Rs 1,864.45; Sun Pharma, down 0.61 per cent at Rs 508.80; and IndusInd Bank, down 0.57 per cent at Rs 1,834.10 per share.
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