Indian stock markets closed on a positive note, on Thursday (August 7), touching an intraday high of 15,280.06 and an intraday low of 14,992.97 ahead of inflation numbers for the week ended July 26.

Buying and selling action was witnessed in some of the selected stocks. Consumer durables, realty, auto, IT, banking traded positively, whereas capital goods, power and oil stocks went down.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap index closed positively after gaining 0.45% and 0.32% respectively.

Finally, the Sensex closed the day after gaining 43.71 points at 15,117.25, whilst the broad-based NSE Nifty surged 6.3 points at 4,523.85.

Asian stocks fell following lower earnings reported by banking institutions, airline businesses and shipping companies, owing to sluggish economic process and increase in raw-material costs.

The market saw 1,406 advancements as against 1,284 declinations.

All sectoral indices traded in positive excluding Capital Goods, Power and Oil & Gas index.

The gainers’ list in the 30-share index included Sterlite Industries (4.43%), Tata Motors (4.10%), HDFC (3.37%), HDFC Bank (3.03%), Grasim (2.49%) and M&M (2.48%).

The major losers’ at the BSE Sensex were BHEL and Bharti Airtel, which fell over 2% each followed by RComm (1.78%), Ranbaxy (1.68%) and Wipro (1.09%).

For the week ended Jul. 26, 2008, inflation reached a new double digit high, in over a decade at 12.01% being the highest in more than 13 years, primarily because of higher prices of pulses, spices, egg, fish and meat.

Stock market analyst Vishwas Agarwal said that BSE 15,150 is a vital level to sustain for further upward movement of the stock market. Inflation is normal and hopefully market will also take it in a positive manner.

He further added, “Current correction is mainly due to sharp rise in the stock prices, but the market will trade with volatility as market is giving signs of investment buying, coming for 6 months to 1 year horizon, which  is helping market maintain current levels. Overall market is in good trading zone with super midcap also participating in the rally.”