Mumbai Aug 21 (IANS) Amid a largely choppy trade the key Indian equity indices of S&P BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty50 settled at their respective closing highs on Tuesday registering nominal gains over the previous trade.
A strengthened rupee against the US dollar during the intra-day aided the key indices to arrest the slide. Earlier in the day it strengthened to an intra-day high of 69.53 to a greenback.
Both S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange touched new all-time intra-day highs of 38 402.96 points and 11 581.75 points respectively but could not hold on the gain.
Index-wise the wider NSE Nifty50 closed at 11 570.90 points up 19.15 points or 0.17 per cent from its previous close of 11 551.75 points.
The benchmark BSE Sensex which had opened at 38 360.32 points closed at 38 285.75 points higher 7 points or 0.02 per cent from its previous close of 38 278.75 points. It touched an intra-day low of 38 213.87 points.
In the broader markets the S&P BSE Mid-cap ended 0.52 per cent higher and the S&P BSE Small-cap rose 0.34 per cent over its previous close. The BSE market breadth was bearish with 1 409 declines and 1 324 advances.
"Markets ended with modest gains on Tuesday after a largely range-bound session. The gains came on the back of positive global markets " said Deepak Jasani Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.
Major Asian markets have closed on a positive note barring the Straits Times index and the European indices like DAX and CAC 40 traded in the green he added.
On Tuesday the Indian rupee appreciated by 2 paise to settle at 69.81 per US dollar from 69.83 on the previous trade session.
Investment-wise provisional data with exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors bought scrips worth Rs 254.25 crore and the domestic institutional investors purchased stocks worth Rs 197.87 crore.
Sector-wise the S&P BSE heathcare index rose 170.11 points the IT index was up 67.28 points and the capital goods index rose 47.98 points.
In contrast the S&P BSE consumer durable index declined by 77.46 points metal index fell 54.50 points and realty index ended lower 31.22 points from its previous close.
The major gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up 2.59 per cent at Rs 291.55; Axis Bank up 1.92 per cent at Rs 636.20; NTPC up 1.70 per cent at Rs 161.20; Sun Pharma up 1.69 per cent at Rs 635.25; and Wipro up 1.48 per cent at Rs 288.50 per share.
The majors losers were Tata Steel down 2.86 per cent at Rs 582.25; Hindustan Unilever down 1.30 per cent at Rs 1 752.40; Vedanta down 1.17 per cent at Rs 219.20; Mahindra and Mahindra down 1.12 per cent at Rs 957.55; and Bharti Airtel down 0.72 per cent at Rs 367.75 per share.

--IANS ravi-rrb/nir