Markets close on a high

The markets ended with noteworthy gains on a rather choppy session of trade.

The benchmark indices oscillated between the positive and negative territory throughout the day as derivatives traders sought to roll over their positions on the last day of the current month series before a smart bout of intra-day short-covering towards the fag end of the day's proceedings helped the Sensex to recapture the 20k peak and the Nifty to surpass the 6000 mark.

The Sensex closed at 20,069 up 113 points and the Nifty added 39 points at 6,029.

In the broader markets, the smallcap indexwas up 0.1% while the midcap index remained in the negative, down 0.2%.

The benchmark index outperformed the broader markets at 0.5%.

On the international front, the Asian markets ended in the negative.The Nikkei closed down 2% at 9,369 and the Hang Seng ended flat at 22,358.

The picture was not very different in the European markets either. FTSE is flat at 5,564, CAC is down 3,710 and DAX is trading in the negative 0.2% at 6,234.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, FMCG up 1.4% laeds the pack followed by Metal, Bankex, IT and Teck.

However, HealthCare, Power, PSU, Auto, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas ended in the red. For a major part of the the day, all the indices were in the negative.

The movers in the FMCG space are ITC up 2.5%, Dabur India gainied 2% and Mcleod Russel added 1.5%.