Editorial
A benchmark index of the Indian equities markets Friday closed flat, posting a gain of 39 points, as traders were cautious over the upcoming US jobs data that might determine the US Federal Reserve's decision to taper the bond buying programme.
The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,955.74 points, closed at 20,996.53 points, up 38.72 points or 0.18 percent from its previous day's close at 20,957.81 points.
The benchmark Sensex again breached the psychological resistance level of 21,000 points and touched a high of 21,049.84 intra-day. It had crossed 21,165.60 points Thursday. The Sensex touched an intra-day low of 20,922.45 points.
The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too closed flat, 18.80 points or 0.30 percent higher at 6,241.10 points. There was healthy buying support in capital goods, consumer durables, bank, metal and automobile stocks. However, information technology (IT) stocks declined.
The S&P BSE capital goods index gained 82.14 points, followed by consumer durables index which was up 71.42 points, bank index was 60.44 points up and automobile index edged higher by 55.60 points. However, IT index closed 4.81 points lower.
Major Sensex gainers were: Tata Power, up 5.57 percent at Rs.88.10; Coal India, 3.58 percent at Rs.289.60; NTPC, up 3.44 percent at Rs.149; Hero MotoCorp, up 2.33 percent at Rs.2,098.70; and ONGC, up 1.31 percent at Rs.294.60.
The main losers were: HDFC, down 1.65 percent at Rs.813.80; Hindalco Inds, down 1.07 percent at Rs.120.60; Hindustan Unilever, down 0.98 percent at Rs.560.85; Bharti Airtel, down 0.98 percent at Rs.332.15; and HDFC Bank, down 0.79 percent at Rs.682.30.
Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.81 percent up and China's Shanghai Composite Index was lower by 0.44 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.13 percent.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.34 percent up, Germany's DAX Index was higher by 0.47 percent and the French CAC 40 Index gained by 0.14 percent.
