The 30 scrip sensitive index S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange opened the special session at 21,278.08 points and was ruling at 21,265.84 points, at around 6.30 p.m., up 0.33 percent or 69.03 points from its previous close of 21,196.81 points.
The special session called Mahurat trading was organised to mark the beginning of Samvat year 2070, a new year according to the Hindu calendar.
Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was up 19.25 points higher at 6,326.60 points.
The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closed 104.96 points or 0.50 percent higher at 21,033.97 points. This is the highest closing level of the benchmark index.
The previous highest closing level of the Sensex was 21,004 points registered Nov 5, 2010.
The Sensex is also not far from its record high of 21,206.77 points touched Jan 10, 2008.
The benchmark Sensex touched a high of 21,086.59 points in intra-day trading Wednesday.
The Indian stock markets rallied for the second consecutive day after the Reserve Bank of India hiked the repo rate by 25 basis points along expected lines and cut Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate to ease liquidity. Interest rate-sensitive banking stocks have rallied following the RBI move.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex fell on Monday for a fifth consecutive session to mark its lowest close in nearly 1-1/2 weeks, as lenders and other interest rate-sensitive shares declined a day before the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy review.
The RBI is expected to raise its lending rate by a quarter percentage point for a second straight month to combat inflation despite the country's sputtering economic growth, a Reuters poll showed.
Traders said that risk aversion was also pronounced ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting on October 29-30 and the expiry of the October derivative contracts on October 31.
However, foreign investors remained net buyers for a 16th consecutive session. Provisional exchange data showed a net purchase of 6.27 billion rupees worth of shares on Friday, bringing the total to nearly 134.2 billion rupees during that period.
"The market felt jitters ahead of the RBI policy meeting. And a 25 bps repo rate hike is widely expected by the Street. What would be interesting is other news that RBI comes out with, in terms of fresh developments in the banking sector," said Milan Bavishi, head of research at Inventure Growth and Securities.
The benchmark BSE Sensex fell 0.55 percent, or 113.24 points, to end at 20,570.28, a fifth straight session of fall after a string of near-three year highs last week.
The broader Nifty fell 0.71 percent, or 43.80 points, to end at 6,101.10.
Banking stocks fell on risk aversion ahead of the RBI's policy review, although the central bank is expected to further ease short-term interest rates.
State Bank of India Ltd fell 2.7 percent, while Bank of Baroda Ltd
Private sector banks also fell, with HDFC Bank Ltd and ICICI Bank Ltd down 0.7 percent each.
Among real estate developers, DLF Ltd fell 3.3 percent, while Unitech Ltd ended 3.2 percent lower.
Consumer goods shares fell as July-September sales volume growth was seen muted, analysts said. ITC Ltd slumped 3.6 percent on Monday after its quarterly results on Friday.
The sectoral fall dragged down Hindustan Unilever Ltd , which ended 0.8 percent lower after earlier rising as much as 4.2 percent after sales volumes grew in line with expectations.
Colgate Palmolive India Ltd shares fell 3.8 percent after its July-September net profit fell by 24.5 percent.
Shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd fell 1.2 percent after Bloomberg News reported the drug maker had received queries from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over quality control at a U.S. subsidiary.
Among the gainers, Indian finance companies which provide loans against gold rallied on speculation that the central bank may allow them to lend 75 percent of the value of jewellery compared with 60 percent earlier, traders said.
Shares of Manappuram Finance Ltd and Muthoot Finance Ltd rose 5 percent to hit their daily upper trading limit.
(Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)
This move of the central bank will make corporate and consumer loans more expensive.
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan brought down the cost of short-term funds for banks by slashing the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate by a similar quantum to 8.75 percent.
Rajan said the policy stance and measures are intended to curb mounting inflationary pressures and manage inflation expectations in a situation of weak growth.
"These will help strengthen the environment for growth by fostering macroeconomic and financial stability. The Reserve Bank will closely monitor inflation risk while being mindful of the evolving growth dynamics," he said.
The RBI reduced the growth forecast for the current fiscal to 5 percent from 5.5 percent projected earlier.
The central bank left other rates unchanged, such as the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 4 percent, and Mandatory holdings in government securities and other liquid assets as a solvency measure (SLR) at 23 percent. (ANI)
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,875.31 points, closed at 20,767.88 points, down 97.09 points or 0.47 percent from the previous day's close at 20,864.97 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 20,922.32 points and a low of 20,589.72 intra-day.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed in negative territory. It ended at 6,178.35 points, down 24.45 points or 0.39 percent.
Heavy selling pressure was observed in automobile, healthcare and oil and gas stocks. However, healthy buying was observed in bank, capital goods and consumer durables sectors.
The S&P BSE automobile index lost 87.22 points, while healthcare index was down 77.75 points, and the oil and gas index was lower by 77.35 points.
However, bank index was up 69.39 points, followed by capital goods index, which gained 51.28 points, and consumer durables index which ended the day's trade 23.83 points up.
The major Sensex gainers were Gail India, up 3.89 percent at Rs.346.25; Cipla, up 2.74 percent at Rs.423.35; State Bank of India (SBI), up 2.35 percent at Rs.1,716.35; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), up 1.35 percent at Rs.947.30; and ICICI Bank, up 1.30 percent at Rs.1,024.50.
The losers in the day's trade were Wipro, down 4.41 percent at Rs.492.20; Sun Pharma, down 2.39 percent at Rs.622.80; NTPC, down 2.02 percent at Rs.145.40; BHEL, down 1.93 percent at Rs.142.55; and Bajaj Auto, down 1.72 percent at Rs.2,100.60.
Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 1.95 percent down, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 1.36 percent, and China's Shanghai Composite Index moved lower by 1.25 percent.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.47 percent lower, while Germany's DAX Index was down 0.46 percent. The French CAC 40 Index was fell by 1.01 percent.
Selling pressure was observed in IT, technology, media and entertainment (TECK) and auto sectors, while marginal good buying was seen in metal sector.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,875.31 points, was trading at 20,728.01 points in the early session, down 136.96 points or 0.66 percent from previous day's close at 20,864.97 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 20,922.32 points and a low of 20,716.50 points during the trade so far.
The S&P BSE IT index tanked by 156.62 points, TECK dropped by 70.47 points and auto index slipped by 89.24 points; while metal index moved up by 29.88 points.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also trading down at 44.20 points or 0.71 percent down at 6,158.60 points.
