Thaindian News

Mumbai, May 7 (IANS) A benchmark index for Indian equities markets Monday clawed back into green after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee deferred the general anti-avoidance rules (GAAR) by a year and said the burden of proving tax evasion will lie with the authorities rather than with overseas investors.

In a day of volatile trading the 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), after falling 318 points in early trade, closed 81.63 points or 0.48 percent higher at 16,912 from its previous close at 16,831.08.

The Sensex, which opened in the red at 16,620.44 points, touched a high of 16,944.13 and low of 16,513.77 in intra-day trade. The Sensex midcap was up 31.78 points and the smallcap rose by 20.09 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P; CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange, which slipped below the crucial 5,000 mark, also ended 0.54 percent or 27.30 points up at 5,114.15.

The sectoral indices rebounded mostly towards the end of the trade.

Banking stocks, which had slumped a week after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced guidelines for implementation of the Basel III norms, rebounded after Mukherjee spoke in parliament.

The BSE banking index closed at 11,374.31, up 90.28 points. The country’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI) was up by 1.63 percent at Rs.2,026.15. Private lender ICICI Bank’s scrip closed 1.65 percent up at Rs.847.70.

The metals index closed up 166.05 points and the auto index gained 123.02 points.

Stock of major auto companies closed the day higher. Maruti Suzuki was up 2.46 percent at Rs.1,314.70. And so were Tata Motors, up 2.29 percent at Rs.308.30, Bajaj Auto, up 0.91 percent at Rs.1,515.45, and Mahindra and Mahindra, up 0.47 percent at Rs.691.10.

There were 19 gainers in the 30-scrip Sensex. These included BHEL, up 6.12 percent at Rs.227.20, L&T;, up 4.79 percent at Rs.1,202.90, DLF, up 4.34 percent at Rs.189.75, Jindal Steel, up 3.54 percent at Rs.501.20 and Tata Steel, up 1.86 percent at Rs.441.60.

Titan Industries and Gitanjali Gems gained 1-2 percent after the finance minister withdrew levy on all branded and non-branded jewellery.

Among major Sensex losers were Reliance Industries, down 1.53 percent at Rs.715.30, Hero MotoCorp, down 1.21 percent at Rs.1,956.95, Hindustan Uniliver, down 1.17 percent at Rs.429.80, HDFC Bank, down 0.86 percent at Rs.532.15 and Wipro, down 0.71 percent at Rs.411.95.

Earlier, Asian markets that closed with deep cuts following the political changes in France and Greece weighed on investors.