Oil stocks help Sensex hold above 20K for first time in 2 yrs

Wipro tanked almost 8 per cent and HDFC Bank ended 0.63 per cent lower. However, ITC closed 0.70 per cent after recording over 21 per cent quarterly profit rise.

Asian stocks ended higher after economic reports in the world's two largest economies, the US and China, beat market estimates according to reports. Key indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan rose by 0.50 per cent to 2.86 per cent.

However, Euorpean markets were trading narrowly mixed as key indices in France and UK both inched up by 0.18 per cent while in Germany eased by 0.03 per cent.

In the local market, 16 scrips from the Sensex pack ended higher while 14 stocks closed lower. Other gainers from the Sensex pack were NTPC (4.59 pc), Maruti Suzuki (3.26 pc), Gail India (2.10 pc), HDFC (1.56 pc), Tata Power (1.55 pc), ICICI Bank (1.08 pc) and SBI (0.93 pc).

However, Hero Motocorp dropped by 2.86 per cent, Dr Reddy's Lab (2.60 pc), HUL (2.10 pc), Sterlite Ind (2.03 pc), Jindal Steel (2.03 pc), M&M (1.70 pc), Bharti Airtel (1.50 pc) and HDFC Bank (1.18 pc), according to updated BSE data.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE-Oil&Gas rose by 3.09 per cent, followed by the BSE-PSU (2.77 pc), the BSE-Power (1.44 pc) and the BSE-Realty (0.86 pc). However, the BSE-IT and the BSE-Teck both fell by 1.13 per cent each.

The total market breadth continued to remain negative as 1,331 stocks finished lower while 971 ended higher. Total turnover firmed up

... contd.