Mumbai, Oct 21 (IANS): A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed Tuesday's trade up 146 points or 0.55 percent as banks, capital goods and metals stocks gained.

Healthy buying was observed in automobile and consumer durable sectors, while selling pressure was seen in oil and gas and healthcare.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 26,552.45 points, closed the day's trade 26,575.65 points, up 145.80 points or 0.55 percent from the previous day's close at 26,429.85 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 26,615.41 points and a low of 26,407 points in intra-trade.

The S&P bank index gained 223.04 points, capital goods index increased by 200.84 points, metal index moved up by 188.90 points, automobile index was higher by 113.23 points and consumer durables index rose by 110.62 points.

However, oil and gas index dropped by 82.87 points and healthcare index shed 17.38 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed trade up 48.35 points or 0.61 percent at 7,927.75 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Gail, up 4.43 percent at Rs.479.05; Sesa Sterlite, up 4.42 percent at Rs.248.15; BHEL, up 4.28 percent at Rs.237.50; Wipro, up 3.04 percent at Rs.573.25; and NTPC, up 2.75 percent at Rs.147.55.

The losers were: ONGC, down 2.57 percent at Rs.408.10; Mahindra and Mahindra, down 2.45 percent at Rs.1,229; Coal India, down 1.57 percent at Rs.35.05; Infosys, down 0.99 percent at Rs.3,774.20; and Sun Pharma, down 0.70 percent at Rs.796.95.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 2.03 percent down, Shanghai Composite Index ended higher by 0.41 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.08 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.85 percent up and the French CAC 40 Index was ruling higher by 0.55 percent at the closing bell here. Germany's DAX Index was moved up by 1.61 percent.