Nifty ends near 30-mth high…Banks, RIL shine

The Indian markets ended near 30-months high on Thursday. In the opening trades the upswing was led by the index heavyweight Reliance Industries, the momentum was then carried forward by the banking stocks.



The Sensex advanced 197 points to close at 18,455, the index hit an intra-day high of 18,475 and an intra-day low of 18,277. While, NSE Nifty gained 61 points to close at 5,540.

Markets in Asia ended in the green; the Nikkei in Japan gained 1.3%, Australia's S&P/ASX ended higher by 0.2% and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong edged higher by 0.3% and the Shanghai SE Composite added 0.8%.

European indices also were trading in the green, the DAX in Germany was up 0.5%, the CAC 40 index in France was up 0.7% and the FTSE in the UK was up 0.2%.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, BSE Bank index gained 2%, BSE FMCG index was up 1.5% and BSE Capital Goods index was up 1%. The Mid-Cap index added 0.9% and the Small-cap index ended higher by 0.8%.

Outside the frontline indices, the big gainers in the broader market were Petronet LNG, Aban Offshore, Bhushan Steel, Union Bank and Tulip Tele. On the other hand, loses included Opto Circuits, Jubilant Org, Marico and RCF.