Sensex touches new high, up 300 points

A benchmark index of the Indian equities markets Monday touched a new high of 22,074.34 points, and closed 300 points up at 22,055.48 points. Monday's high surpassed the previous record of 22,040.72 registered March 18.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex (sensitive index) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 21,827.50 points, closed at 22,055.48 points, up 300.16 points or 1.38 percent from the previous day's close at 21,755.32 points. The Sensex touched a high of 22,074.34 points and a low of 21,827.50 points during the trade.

The rally was led by bank, oil and gas, automobile, capital goods and metal stocks. The 50-scrip Nifty closed the Monday's trade up 88.60 points or 1.36 percent at 6,583.50 points.  Sustained FII (Foreign Institutional Investor) flows, and expectation that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will keep the key interest rates intact in its next monetary review meeting on April 1 led the markets to the new record high.

Sector-wise, the S&P BSE Bank index went was up 376.79 points, oil and gas index gained 223.57 points, automobile index increased by 116.75 points, capital goods index rose 95.38 points and metal index edged higher by 89.30 points. However, S&P BSE healthcare index was down 62.69 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Gail India, up 4.81 percent at Rs.370.35; ONGC, up 4.27 percent at Rs.321.20; ICICI Bank, up 3.71 percent at Rs.1,242.40; Coal India, up 2.81 percent at Rs.270.80; and Hero MotoCorp, up 2.60 percent at Rs.2,125.

The losers were: DrReddys lab, down 1.34 percent at Rs.2,749.15; Wipro, down 0.98 percent at Rs.563.05; Cipla, down 0.80 percent at Rs.391.20; Sun Pharma, down 0.64 percent at Rs.580.60; and Infosys, down 0.60 percent at Rs.3,274.05.