Sensex climbs to intra-day high, Europe strong

A key index for Indian equities Monday rose to its intra-day high in afternoon trade with oil and gas stocks leading the climb. The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,577.66 points, was ruling at 17,745 points, 170.47 points or 0.97 percent up from its previous close at 17,574.53 points. At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty was ruling at 5,322.35 points, up 1.01 percent from its previous close at 5,269.05 points. Broader markets indices too were in the green with the BSE midcap index ruling 0.94 percent higher and the BSE smallcap index 1.09 percent up. Oil, consumer durables, power and realty stocks saw good buying. Asian markets ended dull with a negative bias. The Japanese Nikkei ended 0.45 percent lower at 9,693.94 points, while the South Korean Kospi closed at 1,732.03 points, 0.13 percent up. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.17 percent up at 20,726.68 points. The Chinese Shanghai composite index too was in the red at 2,535.28 points, down 0.69 percent. European markets started strong, but gave up some of the gains on profit booking amid unclear signals from the G20 meeting. Leaders of the G20 countries left room for individual nations to manoeuvre their economies, leaving investors confused over what it would mean to the global economic revival process. In Britain, the benchmark index, FTSE 100 was ruling 0.57 percent higher at 5,075.02 points, while the French CAC 40 was up 0.87 percent at 3,550.38 points. The German DAX was trading 0.88 percent higher at 6,123.85 points.