Benchmark indices BSE Sensex and NSE’s Nifty 50 advanced for the fourth straight day and closed over 1% up on Thursday led by private banks, auto and metal stocks. Positive sentiment in global markets after dovish comments from the US Federal Reserve boosted Indian stocks. Shares of IT companies declined as the rupee strengthened past the 70-mark against the US dollar. Meanwhile, Yes Bank shares fell after rating agencies Icra, Care and Moddy’s downgraded the bank’s long-term ratings, citing governance issues.
“The softness in Fed Chairman’s stance on interest rate hike in the next year, falling crude oil prices and appreciating rupee are definitely encouraging signs for Indian markets,” said Jayant Manglik, President, Religare Broking Ltd. “However, markets may remain volatile in the short term as few important domestic as well as global events are round the corner. Domestically, Q2 GDP data, RBI monetary policy (next week) and state elections results would be keenly monitored by market participants.”
In global markets, stocks in Europe and Asia climbed after a dovish tone from the Federal Reserve chairman boosted sentiment ahead of this weekend’s G-20 meeting of the world’s largest economies on trade. Hong Kong and Chinese stocks erased advances as U.S. futures slid. Emerging-market equities rose to the highest level since early October. Oil crashed below $50 a barrel for the first time in more than a year as Russia signaled little urgency to commit to supply cuts. Here are the highlights from the markets:
Closing bell: Sensex, Nifty
The BSE Sensex closed 453.46 points, or 1.27%, up at 36,170.41, while the Nifty 50 ended 129.85 points, or 1.21%, higher at 10,858.70. Intraday, the Sensex rose 536.9 points to 36,253.85 and the Nifty 50 jumped 154.2 points to 10,883.05.
The BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices rose 0.62% and 0.22%, respectively. Fifteen out of 19 sectoral indices on BSE gained led by metal, which rose 2.01%. Bankex, finance, energy, basic materials, realty, consumer durables and auto rose over 1%. IT, teck, utilities and power declined.
Bajaj Auto, Kotak Bank, M&M, Bajaj Finance and Vedanta were among the top gainers on the key indices, whereas ONGC, Power Grid, NTPC and Infosys were major losers.