Indices close with marginal gains

26 August 2005

Markets opened the day on a strong note, taking off from yesterday's late surge. Strength across most Asian markets and steady trend in the US markets added to the positive sentiment.

Within an hour, the indices started their downtrend as selling emerged at higher levels and the weakness remained till late in the afternoon. The last hour saw the markets staging a recovery and the indices inched back into positive territory.

Sensex closed at 7680, a gain of 20 points, and the Nifty at 2357, a gain of 3 points. Nifty September futures closed at a discount of 23 points to the spot index.

BPCL, TCS and Gujarat Ambuja Cements were the only stocks on the Nifty, which managed to close with marginal gains while HDFC Bank, Wipro and SAIL were the major losers.

US markets recovered yesterday from the previous day's fall, though gains were marginal. The Dow and S&P 500 closed with gains of one fifths of a per cent each. NASDAQ closed with gains of more than a quarter of a per cent.

Crude futures for October delivery recovered in afternoon trades and closed with marginal gains at $67.49 per barrel yesterday. Crude markets remained steady, as the hurricane did not cause much damage to the oil facilities as it hit the eastern coast of US. The commodity is trading marginally lower in early European trades today.