Mumbai, Nov 29 (IANS): A benchmark index of Indian equities markets ended Friday's trade 257 points or 1.25 percent up ahead of the national growth data release coupled with healthy buying across major bluechip firms.

Good buying was observed in all sectoral indices, especially in bank, capital goods, metal, oil and gas and public sector undertakings (PSUs) sectors.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,558.93 points, closed at 20,791.93 points, up 257.02 points or 1.25 percent from its previous day's close at 20,534.91 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 20,0819.77 points and a low of 20,228.93 points intra-day.

The S&P BSE bank index was up 275.09 points followed by capital goods index which gained 172.36 points, metal index moved up by 162.81 points, oil and gas index climbed up by 107.67 points and PSU index gained by 107.27 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed trade 84.25 points (provisionally) or 1.38 percent up at 6,176.10 points.

Major Sensex gainers were: Sesa Sterlite, up 4.25 percent at Rs.182.70; BHEL, up 3.65 percent at Rsz.156.35; State Bank of India (SBI), up 3.64 percent at Rs.1,827.80; ICICI Bank, up 3.01 percent at Rs.1,071; and Cipla, up 2.61 percent at Rs.389.90.

The main losers were: Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), down 1.17 percent at Rs.946.80; Hero MotoCorp, down 0.89 percent at Rs.2,041.50; Wipro, down 0.50 percent at Rs.470.50; NTPC, down 0.24 percent at Rs.147.45; and Tata Steel, down 0.15 percent at Rs.400.15.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.41 percent and China's Shanghai Composite Index was up by 0.05 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.39 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.26 percent up, Germany's DAX Index was up 0.04 percent and the French CAC 40 Index was up by 0.11 percent.

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