Mumbai, June 25 (IANS): Hopes of resolution of the Greek debt crises and higher rollover from the derivatives expiry led a benchmark index of the Indian equities markets to make healthy gains on Thursday.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closed more than 165 points up during the day's trade.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed the day's trade with gains. It rose by 37.15 points or 0.44 percent at 8,398 points.

The Sensex of the S&P BSE, which opened at 27,660.22 points, closed at 27,895.97 points, up 166.30 points or 0.60 percent from the previous day's close at 27,729.67 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 27,968.75 points and a low of 27,635.76 points in the intra-day trade.

According to analysts, the futures and options (F&O) expiry and the expectation for a Greek solution in the near term helped the market to recover from the lower levels of the day and kept the market in the positive territory.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement "of three flagship schemes related to housing tops a bright day for equity market despite being volatile for some period due to derivatives expiry", said Anand James, co-head technical research desk, Geojit BNP Paribas.

"Of course, the extent of success for such plans hinges on the land availability, and to this end, the monsoon session of parliament becomes important as the government is likely to face resistance in the Rajya Sabha when tabling the land bill," James said.

The analyst also pointed out that derivatives expiry assumed significance as it showed a clear picture of investors' positive sentiment on the long-term prospects in the F&O contracts.

"Currently, it seems the money flow and long-shorts will be maintained by the investors. However, until yesterday there seemed to be a lower roll-over effect due to slow pace of economic reforms, Greece crisis and the government's ability to pass key bills in parliament," James told IANS.

During the intra-day trade on Thursday, healthy buying was observed in capital goods, bank, automobile and oil and gas sectors.

However, stocks of information technology (IT), fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), technology, entertainment and media (TECK) and consumer durables came under heavy selling pressure.

The S&P BSE capital goods index augmented by 369.02 points, bank index rose by 168.10 points, automobile index was higher by 165.24 points and oil and gas index was up 94.01 points.

However, the S&P BSE IT index receded by 104.66 points, FMCG index was lower by 41.10 points, TECK index fell by 38.18 points and consumer durables index slipped by 9.04 points.

The major Sensex gainers in Thursday's trade were: Bajaj Auto, up 4.65 percent at Rs.2,506.25; Gail, up 3.44 points at Rs.412.50; Larsen and Toubro, up 3.28 percent at Rs.1,806.90; HDFC, up 2.20 percent at Rs.1,308.90; and Vedanta, up 2.10 percent at Rs.179.70.

The major Sensex losers were: Wipro, down 2.30 percent at Rs.553.80; Cipla, down 1.74 percent at Rs.610.90; Hindustan Unilever, down 1.28 percent at Rs.883.85; ONGC, down 1.27 percent at Rs.313.85; and NTPC, down 0.95 percent at Rs.135.55.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed lower by 0.46 percent and China's Shanghai Composite Index lost 3.44 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by 0.95 percent.

In Europe, the London FTSE 100 index slipped by 0.09 percent, the French CAC 40 gained 0.41 percent and Germany's DAX Index was higher by 0.60 percent at the closing bell here.