Sensex ends 24 points up; Hero Honda surges 18 percent (Roundup)

MUMBAI - A benchmark index of the Indian equities market closed almost flat Monday as a rally in auto and technology scrips offset losses in banking and realty stocks.

The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened deep in the red at 19,770.02 points, settled at 19,888.88 points, up 0.12 percent or 24.03 points, in a volatile session.

The Sensex crossed psychologically important 20,000 points mark in the intra-day trading. The index touched a high of 20,006.16 points and low of 19,711.12 points in the intra-day.

Hero Honda surged 18.04 percent to Rs.1,982, recouping the last one month’s losses. The scrip has surged following the last week’s announcement of termination of 26-year-old joint venture between Hero Group and Japan’s Honda Motor.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the 50-share S&P CNX Nifty also closed almost flat. The Nifty settled the day 0.03 percent or 1.7 points down at 5,947.05 points.

Sectoral indices closed mixed, with the BSE Auto index gaining 2.3 percent, while the BSE Bankex and Realty index losing nearly 1.5 percent.

The BSE Midcap index closed 0.13 percent down at 7,558.37 while the BSE Smallcap index moved up 0.40 percent.

Other major gainers at the Sensex were Cipla, up 2.55 percent at Rs.365.65; Maruti Suzuki, up 2.37 percent at Rs.1,414.45; TCS, up 2.27 percent at Rs.1,166.25 and Mahindra and Mahindra, up 1.80 percent at Rs.745.80.

The country’s largest lender State Bank of India slumped 2.11 percent to Rs.2,703.65. NTPC, down 2.43 percent to Rs.192.90; Bharti Airtel, down 2.26 percent at Rs.335.80; Sterlite Inds 2.21 percent down at Rs.168.40 and Reliance Infra, down 2.14 percent at Rs.810.80 were among the major losers at the Sensex.

Other Asian markets ended in the red. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.41 percent to 2,852.92 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.33 percent down at 2,2639.10 points.

The Japanese Nikkei settled 0.85 percent down at 10,216.40 points.

However, European markets were in the positive. Around mid-day, Britain’s FTSE 100 was ruling 0.53 percent higher at 5,902.89 points, the German DAX 1.11 percent up at 7,059.99 points.

The French CAC 40 was ruling 1.10 percent higher at 3,909.89 points.