Sensex misses 20k by a whisker

MUMBAI: The benchmark Sensex missed the 20,000-milestone by a whisker on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Friday on profit selling, but still closed the day with a gain of over 170 points.

The Sensex, which zoomed past the 20,000-level at open, rolled back to close at 19,966.00. It represents a gain of 170.13 points over its previous close.

The key-index touched the day's high of 20,094.56 and a low of 19,706.43 points.

The National Stock Exchange index Nifty also rose by 19.60 points to 5,974.30, after touching the day's high of 6,042.10 and a low of 5,894.80 points.

Banking and IT stocks were the major supporters to the market. Banking index shot up by 269.68 points to 11,377.96, followed by IT at 4,424.57, up by 157.42 points.

Realty index rose by 229.27 points to 11,576.63 and tech index by 102.94 points to 3,873.00.

However, oil and gas, metal, consumer durable, capital goods and PSU indices were lower and helped in checking the rising trend.