Mumbai, May 21: After rising over 140 points intra-day, the BSE benchmark Sensex finally closed with a meagre gain of 30 points amid hectic selling in the last hour of trade triggered by the rupee moving towards its record lows against the dollar.
The 30-share Sensex, which climbed to day's high of 16,298.39 led by smart gains in State Bank of India and Reliance Capital stocks, encountered a sudden bout of selling after investors became jittery over the weakness in rupee.
Shortly thereafter, Sensex touched an intra-day low of 16,149.61 but finally settled at 16,183.26, up 30.51 points or 0.19 per cent.
Brokers said the late selling emerged after the rupee touched an intra-day low of 54.88 points against the dollar during market hours, raising concerns over slowing economic growth and a widening budgetary deficit.
They also said that attractive earnings in State Bank of India and Reliance Capital as well as the firming trend in global markets saved the market from ending in negative zone at close.
On similar lines, the 50-share NSE Nifty ended higher by 14.60 points, or 0.30 per cent to 4,906.05, after touching the day's high of 4,937.50.
Market participants said the market was mostly supported by stocks of capital goods, realty, power and banking sectors.
Among the 30 Sensex stocks, 16 gained while 14 declined. State Bank of India rose by 3.37 per cent to Rs 2,007.40 and Reliance Capital by 7.85 per cent to Rs 313.75 after investors cheered their stellar earnings.
Other stocks like Tata Power shot up by 4.49 per cent to Rs 95.50, Maruti Suzuki rose by 2.99 per cent to Rs 1,199.95, L&T gained 2.35 per cent to Rs 1,189.
BHel and Coal India also gained over 2 per cent each.
