After opening the day in green, share markets in India witnessed buying activity throughout the day and ended the day on a positive note. Gains were seen across most sectors with stocks in the consumer durables sector and stocks in the IT sector, leading the gains.
At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 91 points (up 0.3%) and the NSE Nifty closed up by 41 points (up 0.4%). The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day up by 0.6%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day up by 0.5%.
Asian stock markets finished in green. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was up by 0.6% and the Shanghai Composite was flat. The Nikkei 225 was up by 0.1%. European markets mixed. The FTSE 100 was down by 0.3%. The DAX was higher by 0.1% while the CAC 40 was up by 0.3%.
The rupee was trading at Rs 64.72 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 58.59 at the time of writing.
In news from the automobile sector. As per a survey by the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) Gujarat, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra have emerged as the top 5 states in electric vehicle sales in the last financial year.
A SMEV survey of electric vehicles (EVs) sold during the last fiscal showed that 1,926 of these were sold in Maharashtra, 2,388 in Rajasthan, 2,467 in Uttar Pradesh, 2,846 in West Bengal and 4,330 in Gujarat, which made it the to the top in bringing the maximum number of e-vehicles on road.
Of all the EVs sold, 92% were two-wheelers and only 8% were four-wheelers.
Currently, electric vehicle sales are low in India, rising 37.5% to 22,000 units in the year ended 31 March 2016 from 16,000 in 2014-15. Only 2,000 of these were cars and other four-wheelers, according to automobile lobby group Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam).
The government wants to see 6 million electric and hybrid vehicles on Indian roads by 2020 under the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020.
