Mumbai, Sep 17 (IANS) A benchmark index of Indian equities markets was ruling 138 points up Monday in late afternoon trade. Realty, capital goods and banking stocks were the main gainers.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,619.90 points, was trading at 18,601.96 points, 137.69 points or 0.75 percent up from its previous day's close at 18,464.27 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 18,715.03 and a low of 18,480.54 points in intra-day trade. The BSE midcap index was up 70.09 points while the smallcap index was 74.06 points high.
The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was also ruling 0.82 percent up at 5,623.65 points.
On the sectoral front, the BSE realty index was up 104.88 points while capital goods was up 428.76 points and banking index was up 410.72 points.
Jindal Steel was the biggest Sensex gainer and was trading 6.11 percent high at Rs.395.
Other major gainers were Tata Motors, up 5.99 percent at Rs.286.50; ICICI Bank, up 5.48 percent at Rs.1,061.50; Larsen and Toubro, up 5.10 percent at Rs.1,562.80; BHEL, up 4.86 percent at Rs.214.55; and SBI, up 4.52 percent at Rs.2,059.55.
The major Sensex losers were ITC, down 6.01 percent at Rs.252; TCS, down 4.60 percent at Rs.1,347.05; Dr Reddys Lab, down 3.78 percent at Rs.1,680; Infosys, down 3.16 percent at Rs.2,549.60; and Hindustan Unilever, down 2.35 percent at Rs.534.55.
Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed up 1.83 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed 0.14 percent higher. Shanghai's composite index closed 2.14 percent down.
The European markets were trading in red. France's CAC was down 0.47 percent, while Germany's DAX was fell 0.10 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was trading 0.24 percent lower.