Mumbai, Oct 9 (IANS): A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Thursday closed almost 400 points or nearly 1.50 percent up, on back of positive global cues after the US Federal Reserve hinted that interest rates will stay near zero level for a "considerable time".
The benchmark index was range-bound with gains of about 300 points since the early morning session. Healthy buying was observed in bank, capital goods, metal, automobile, healthcare and oil and gas sectors. All industry indices of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closed the day's trade in the positive territory.
According to Angel Broking, Indian markets traded positively tracking SGX Nifty and Asian markets. Late Wednesday saw US stocks rising after the Federal Reserve's hint that interest rates will remain near zero level for a "considerable time".
The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P BSE, which opened at 26,394.37 points, closed trade at 26,637.28 points, up 390.49 points or 1.49 percent from the previous day's close at 26,246.79 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 26,688.70 points and a low of 26,394.21 points in the intra-trade.
"The best part is that our markets moved up mainly because of strength in cyclical stocks like banks, metals, infrastructure and capital goods. The new economy sectors remained under the pressure of profit taking but we feel it's a healthy signal for the market," said Shrikant Chouhan, head-technical research, Kotak Securities.
"We are of the view that next three months will be the months of cyclical to perform and in that if indices breaks 8,180 points along with the participation of cyclical stocks then the Nifty can easily move to 8,500 or 8,600 by the end of December 2014."
The S&P BSE bank index was up 441.80 points, followed by capital goods index which was higher by 425.44 points, metal index gained 214.04 points, automobile index zoomed 170.12 points, healthcare index rose 153.76 points and oil and gas index increased by 142.97 points.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also made gains. It ended the day's trade up 117.85 points or 1.50 percent at 7,960.55 points.
The major Sensex gainers were: BHEL, up 8.37 percent at Rs.218.85; Hindalco Inds, up 6.01 percent at Rs.157.75; State Bank of India (SBI), up 2.84 percent at Rs.2,480.25; HDFC, up 2.68 percent at Rs.1,040.60; and ICICI Bank, up 2.64 percent at Rs.1,487.90.
The losers were: Wipro, down 0.83 percent at Rs.588.05; NTPC, down 0.49 percent at Rs.143.05; Mahindra and Mahindra, down 0.38 percent at Rs.1,367.50; ITC, down 0.19 percent at Rs.365.25; and Infosys, down 0.13 percent at Rs.3,645.55.
Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.74 percent down, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.17 percent. Shanghai Composite Index, was higher by 0.16 percent.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.04 percent down. Germany's DAX Index, was higher by 0.52 percent, but the French CAC 40 Index slipped by 0.14 percent at the closing bell here.