Mumbai, Aug 5 (IANS): A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed in positive territory after eight straight days of losses. The index Monday gained 18 points in volatile trade, led by healthy buying in metal, bank and information technology (IT) stocks.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)had lost 5.6 percent in the previous eight sessions. Sentiments were low following the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) measures in mitigating the fall in rupee's value which is range-bound around Rs.60 per dollar. There were also concerns about the government's ability to get key legislative reforms in pension and insurance sector passed during the current monsoon session.

Scrips of metal, bank, information technology (IT), fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and public sector undertakings (PSU) gained, while that of capital goods, consumer durables, automobile, healthcare and power sectors saw heavy selling.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,178.06 points, closed at 19,182.26 points, up 18.24 points or 0.10 percent from the previous day's close at 19,164.02 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 19,306.51 points and a low of 19,141.68 points intra-day.

The S&P BSE metal index gained by 174.06 points, followed by bank index which increased by 110.30 points, IT index gained by 67.57 points, FMCG index closed Monday's trade up 38.65 points and PSU index was higher by 31.36 points.

However, capital goods index closed Monday's trade down by 287.02 points, followed by consumer durables index down 46.88 points, automobile index was down 46.37 points, healthcare index was down 43.11 points and power index was lower by 14.46 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed Monday's trade down 7.50 points or 0.13 percent at 5,685.40 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Jindal Steel, up 7.73 percent at Rs.201.35; Sterlite Inds, up 4.15 percent at Rs.75.30; NTPC, up 3.81 percent at Rs.134.90; Coal India, up 3.36 percent at Rs.263.10; and Hero MotoCorp, up 3.16 percent at Rs.1,853.45.

The main losers were: BHEL, down 19.08 percent at Rs.120.90; Bharti Airtel, down 2.35 percent at Rs.336.60; Tata Motors, down 2.01 percent at Rs.284.60; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), down 1.98 percent at Rs.813.80; and Bajaj Auto, down 1.76 percent at Rs.1,874.80.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei declined 1.44 percent; Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up by 0.14 percent and China's Shanghai Composite Index was marginally down by 1.04 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.15 percent up. Germany's DAX Index was down 0.02 percent and the French CAC 40 Index was up 0.20 percent.