India's Sensex ends 385 points higher; IT, power stocks climb

Mumbai: The Indian equities market benchmark Sensex closed 385 points higher on Thursday led by strong buying support in power, IT and financial stocks.

Power Grid Corporation surged 3.40 per cent to Rs.208.40. NTPC gained 1.67 per cent. Major IT stocks closed with handsome gains led by close to a two per cent rally in Infosys.

With close to one-and-a-half per cent gain State Bank of India led the rally in banking and financial stocks.

The 30 stock S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange closed at 57,315.28 points, 0.68 per cent or 384.72 points higher from its previous day close at 56,930.56 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 57,490.52 points and low of 57,146.28 points in the intra-day.

The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange closed 0.69 per cent or 117.15 points higher at 17,072.60 points. Earlier the Nifty opened on a strong positive note and touched a high of 17,118.65 points in the intra-day.

Major Sensex gainers included: ITC 2.48 per cent higher at Rs 217.30; Bajaj Finance 2.12 per cent higher at Rs 6917.50; Infosys 1.77 per cent higher at Rs 1856.80; NTPC 1.67 per cent higher at Rs 124.60; Tech Mahindra 1.44 per cent higher at Rs 1683.75; Wipro 1.36 per cent higher at Rs 694.70 and State Bank of India 1.35 per cent higher at Rs 461.95.

Only 10 of the 30 Sensex scrips closed in the negative. Bharti Airtel fell 0.93 per cent to Rs 678.50. Sun Pharma 0.80 per cent down at Rs 790.70; Maruti Suzuki 0.57 per cent down at Rs 7384.60; UltraTech Cement 0.56 per cent down at Rs 7335 and Asian Paints 0.27 per cent down at Rs 3272 were among the major Sensex losers.