Sensex at 3-week closing high; Coal India, RIL shares rally

The 30-share Sensex was up 191 points at 28,707.75 and the 50-share Nifty was up 54 points at 8,714.

Logging its fourth consecutive rise on Wednesday, the benchmark BSE Sensex ended over 190 points higher at 28,707.75, mainly led by gains in Reliance, Infosys and Coal India amid sustained foreign fund inflows.

Rate-sensitive banking, realty and capital goods shares were back in the action after some banks cut their lending rates, brokers said.

The 30-share BSE gauge opened on a strong footing and picked up momentum on sustained foreign capital inflows and touched a high of 28,763.06.

It finally settled 191.16 points higher or 0.67 per cent at 28,707.75.

The bluechip gauge has now garnered 750.26 points in last four straight sessions and is at three-week high levels.

The 50-share NSE Nifty index recaptured the crucial 8,700-mark by rising 54.10 points or 0.62 per cent to close at 8,714.40.

As many as 21 of the 30 Sensex stocks closed with gains. Among Sensex gainers, Coal India topped the list by climbing 5.73 per cent on reports that the government has lifted the cap on the company's e-auction sales.

Reliance industries with the rise of 3.93 per cent, Bharti Airtel 3.63 per cent, Dr Reddy's 2.10 per cent, GAIL 2.06 per cent and ITC 1.55 per cent were among other gainers.

Sectorwise, IT index rose the most by gaining 1.98 per cent as Infosys and TCS ended higher ahead of their fourth quarter earnings, followed by teck 1.74 per cent, metal (1.62 per cent), oil&gas (1.55 per cent), FMCG (1.46 per cent) and consumer durables (1.15 per cent) among others.

However, bankex was the only sectoral index to fall on BSE today. Globally, a higher closing at other Asian markets and a positive opening at the European markets too influenced trading sentiments here.

The BSE smallcap index edged up by 1.79 per cent while midcap index gained 0.65 per cent.

Foreigners bought shares worth Rs 143.98 crore and Domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 326.06 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.