Sensex closes at one-month high on GDP, manufacturing

The benchmark Sensex rose 106 points on Monday to the highest level in a month after data showed economic growth in the second quarter was better than expected and manufacturing activity expanded last month.

The gains were led by healthcare, capital goods, banking and metal sector stocks.

ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma and Larsen & Toubro helped to lift the index even as ONGC and Hindustan Unilever dragged it lower. Jindal Steel, Wipro and BHEL were among the top gainers.

The 30-share S&P BSE Sensex resumed on a lower note and hovered in a range of 20,770.51 to 20,941 before ending at 20,898.01, up 106.08 points or 0.51 per cent. It was the third day of gains for the index, which is at the highest level since the November 5 close.

"GDP numbers, which were better than estimates, and improvement in manufacturing data for November boosted market sentiment," said Nidhi Saraswat, Senior Research Analyst at Bonanza Portfolio Ltd.

The 50-share CNX Nifty on the National Stock Exchange surged 41.75 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 6,217.85. The SX40 on the MCX Stock Exchange ended at 12,375.76, up 31.27 points.

The economy grew 4.8 per cent in the three months ended September 30 as agriculture and factory output improved, the government said after market hours on Friday. Growth was 4.4 per cent in the previous quarter.

India's manufacturing sector activity expanded in November for the first time since July, driven by rising new domestic orders, an HSBC survey said. The HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index for the manufacturing industry climbed from 49.6 in October to 51.3 in November.

Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth a net Rs 745.16 crore last Friday, according to provisional data from the stock exchange.

Most Asian stocks ended up after Chinese manufacturing growth beat analyst estimates in November. Key benchmark indices in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan were up 0.09 per cent to 0.66 per cent while indices in China, South Korea, and Japan were down 0.04 per cent to 0.59 per cent.

European stocks were trading lower as investors awaited the final purchasing managers' indices from the major euro- zone economies and digested data from China. Key indices in France and UK eased by 0.17 per cent to 0.35 per cent while Germany's DAX was quoted higher by 0.09 per cent .

Turning to the domestic market, 21 scirps out of the 30 -share sensex pack ended higher while remainly nine declined.

Sun Pharma was the top performar by surging 4.09 per cent followed by Jindal Steel 4.01 per cent , Wipro 2.24 per cent , Larsen 2.22 per cent , BHEL 2.05 per cent , Icici bank 1.97 per cent , Tata Steel 1.90 per cent , Bharti Airtel 1.56 per cent , M&M 1.34 per cent and Coal India 0.72 per cent .

However, HUL fell 1.88 per cent , ONGC 1.54 per cent , Gail India 1.42 per cent and Maruti Suzuki 0.96 per cent .

Among the S&P BSE sectoral indies, Healthcare rose by two per cent followed by Capital Goods 1.61 per cent , Bankex 1.16 per cent and Metal 1 per cent.

The market breadth remained positive as 1,464 shares gained, 1,007 fell and 164 ruled steady. Total turnover fell to Rs 1,958.42 crs from Rs 2,061.58 crore on last Friday.