Sensex ends week with significant gains

MUMBAI: Indian stock markets ended with hefty gains after an extremely volatile session on Friday. Power, capital goods and real estate stocks were the star performers of the day.

The benchmark sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) shut shop for the week at 18,852.87, gaining 326.55 points or 1.76 percent.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended at 5,609, gaining 89.25 points or 1.62 percent.

The BSE Metal and Realty indices surged 3.5 percent each to 16,594 and 9,783, respectively. The Oil & Gas index gained 2.5 percent at 11,987.

The market breadth was fairly positive -- out of 2,842 stocks traded, 1,760 advanced, 1,034 declined and 48 were unchanged.

Top gainers on the Sensex included Reliance Energy, which rose 7.48 percent to Rs.1,725.10; DLF moved up 5.58 percent to Rs.868.65 and HDFC scaled up 4.12 percent to Rs.2,266.30.

The top losers on the Sensex included Maruti Suzuki, down by 2.07 percent to Rs.946.70; HDFC Bank down by 1.97 percent to Rs.1,562.70 and Cipla, which declined 0.93 percent to Rs.181.25.

Reliance Petroleum topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs.3.67 billion, followed by Reliance Energy (Rs.2.91 billion), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs.2.53 billion), Reliance (Rs.2.33 billion) and Reliance Capital (Rs.2.03 billion).