Sensex closes in the positive terrain, up 29 pts

Mumbai, Feb 7 (PTI)In volatile trading, the BSE benchmarkSensex managed to end in the positive terrain, gaining 29points to finish at 18,037.19 on fresh buying in realty, FMCGand auto counters, as government pegged a higher economicgrowth rate for the current fiscal compared to 2009-10.

Besides, cues from the European markets were firm.

However, shares of Consumer Durables, Capital Goods andHealthcare declined on persistent selling pressure.

The government today announced economic growth for thecurrent financial year at 8.6 per cent, as against 8 per centa year ago, boosting the sentiment to some extent.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the 8.6 percent economic growth estimated for the current fiscal wassatisfactory in the wake of rising inflation and tradeimbalances.

The BSE benchmark resumed higher at 18,135.02 and hoveredin a range of 18,180.94 and 17,977.01 before concluding theday at 18,037.19, showing a gain of 29.04 points or 0.16 percent from its last weekend''s level.

However, the NSE 50-share nifty ended flat at 5,396.00 asagainst the last weekend''s level of 5,395.75.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought sharesworth a net of Rs 144.04 crore and domestic institutionalinvestors bought shares worth Rs 237.45 crore last Friday, asper the provisional data from the exchanges. .