Mumbai: The stock market remained lacklustre for the most part on Monday but buying in the fag end in consumer durables, capital goods and power stocks lifted Sensex 75 points higher to 17,633.45 -- the highest closing since March 15 -- ahead of July inflation numbers on Tuesday.
After opening lower in morning, the BSE benchmark index continued to trade listless in first half and touched day's low of 17,522.10 points amid global stocks being range-bound.
However, emergence of buying activity and capital inflows in the closing stages of trading lifted the index to 17,642.38 points. It finally settled at 17,633.45, up 75.71 points or 0.43 percent over previous close. This is the highest closing for the index since March 15 when it closed at 17,675.85.
Housing loan provider, HDFC, was the top gainer from the Sensex pack with a rise of 3.71 percent on heavy buying from institutional investors.
HDFC Bank, RIL, L&T, Bharti Airtel and Sterlite Industries also registered smart gains while HUL, Tata Motors, TCS, ICICI Bank and ITC suffered losses.
The 50-share NSE index Nifty rose by 27.50, or 0.52 percent to 5,347.90.
"Markets, in general, are expecting the government to formulate and implement key reforms which shall give boost to the economy," said Nidhi Sarswat, Senior Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio. The Sensex had lost 44 points in last three sessions as cautious sentiment prevailed.
Reports that government could resume privatisation plan by selling stakes in Bhel and Sail also cheered investors, said Milan Bavishi, Head-Research, Inventure Growth & Securities.
12 out of 13 sectoral indices closed higher today while only BSE-Auto index ended lower.
Brokers said the sentiment also improved following market regulator SEBI's plans to announce wide-ranging reforms in the mutual fund and the IPO space.
Barring Singapore, other Asian markets ended lower. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan were down by 0.06 percent to 1.51 percent, while Straits Times closed up by 0.35 percent.
European markets were also trading mixed in their afternoon deals. France's CAC was trading up by 0.06 percent and Germany's DAX was up 0.37 percent. The UK's FTSE was down by 0.04 percent.
Back home, other Sensex major gainers were Serlite (2.66 percent), Maruti Suzuki (1.95 percent), Bajaj Auto (1.68 percent), BHEL (1.66 percent), Bharti Airtel (1.64 percent), Wipro (1.60 percent), L&T (0.98 percent) Sun Pharma (0.95 percent) and SBI (0.94 percent).
However, Tata Motors declined by 1.55 percent, followed by HUL (1.43 percent), Hero MotoCorp (1.32 percent), Hindalco (1.26 percent), Tata Steel (1.19 percent) and TCS (0.92 percent).
Among the sectoral indices, the BSE-Realty rose by 2.41 percent, followed by the BSE-CD (1.70 percent), the BSE-CG (1.08 percent), the BSE-Power (1.02 percent) and the BSE-PSU (0.95 percent).
The overall market breadth turned positive as 1,474 stocks finished with gains while 1,280 closed with losses.
The total turnover declined to Rs 1,857.97 crore from the last Friday's level of Rs 2,192.36 crore.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 86.13 crores on last Friday as per the provisional figures inssued by the stock exchanges.
PTI
First Published: Monday, August 13, 2012, 18:51