Realty index shrugs off Sensex blues

The Bombay Stock Exchange's (BSE) Realty Index, launched yesterday, had a modest debut today with the index ending the day at 0.32 per cent higher. The benchmark Sensex ended the day in the red at 15,009.88, down 0.24 per cent or 35.85 points.

The positive closing for BSE Realty Index, which has 11 real estate stocks as its constituents, was helped by gains by Indiabulls Real Estate, Akruti Nirman and Ansal Infrastructure.

The country's biggest property developer DLF Ltd, which has the maximum weightage in the index of 35.94 per cent, ended the day at Rs 571.75, down by 0.38 per cent from yesterday.

Unitech, which has the second biggest weightage on the index (31.57 per cent), ended the day with a marginal gain of 0.12 per cent at Rs 526.10.

The index represents 95 per cent of the companies in BSE 500 which are engaged into real estate development activities.

The index opened at 7,353.81 points, up 19.84 points (0.27 per cent) against its previous close of 7,333.97 points. It touched a high of 7,447.75 points and a low of 7,340.99 points before closing at 7,333.80 points.

Seven of the 11 index stocks gained, while four went down. A total of 1.29 crore shares belonging to these realty companies were traded.