Sensex closes above 28000 points for 1st time

Equity benchmarks continued record with the Sensex closing above the 28000-mark for the first time on the back of buying in rate sensitives - banking & financials and autos stocks. However, the market halved its gains in last couple of hours of trade due to weak European cues. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 98.84 points to close at 28008.90 and the 50-share NSE Nifty hit 8400 level during the day but could not hold the same, up 20.65 points to end at 8383.30. The broader markets gained too, the BSE Midcap and Small-cap indices climbed 0.5 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.