Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex today jumped by 192 points to its highest in near one-month at 27,837.21 as blue-chip stocks HDFC, Wipro and TCS advanced on prevailing rate cut expectations and ease in foreign investors’ selling.
Buying was visible in IT, teck, banking and power shares. Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 48.06 crore in yesterday’s trade as per provisional data. “As the market is edging higher on rate cut expectations and easing in FII selling, today the trend was positive with limited volatility. Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) have also been actively buying,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Fundamental Research at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
Sensex counters like HDFC, HDFC Bank, TCS, Infosys, RIL, ICICI Bank, SBI, Sun Pharma, Wipro, HUL and Tata Power closed with sharp to marginal gains and mainly supported the index’s recovery.
The gauge had lost 41.77 points in yesterday’s highly volatile session. The 30-share BSE index commenced the day higher at 27,749.30 and further advanced to touch the day’s high of 27,903.01. However, profit-booking at higher levels in some counters, trimmed some gains.
It finally settled higher by 191.68 points or 0.69 per cent at 27,837.21, a level last seen on April 22. The broad-based 50-issue Nifty recaptured the 8,400-level by closing 57.60 points or 0.69 per cent higher at 8,423.25. It shuttled between 8,440.35 and 8,391.45 during the session.
“Even as rate cut hopes push Indian equities higher, such attempts continue to face resistance from concerns that the extent of southwest monsoon rains would be normal and would be influenced by El Nino phenomenon,” said Anand James, Co Head Technical Research Desk of Geojit BNP Paribas.
Globally, Asian markets closed side-ways due to mixed closing on the Wall Street yesterday. Key indices from China, Japan and South Korea settled higher, while from Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan finished lower.
European markets, however, were trading weak after a Greek official said the country may not make an upcoming repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Among Europe’s major indices, France’s CAC was down by 0.24 per cent, Germany’s DAX lower by 0.28 per cent, while the UK’s FTSE was trading almost stable. Back home, out of 30 Sensex shares, 18 scrips finished higher and 11 closed lower, while Hero MotoCorp ended steady.
HDFC with a rise of 2.11 per cent was the biggest gainer, followed by Wipro (2.03 pc), TCS (1.82 pc), Tata Power (1.78 pc), HDFC Bank (1.72 pc), Reliance Industries (1.33 pc), Infosys (1.33 pc), HUL (1.24 pc), SBI (1.21 pc), ICICI Bank (1.03 pc) and GAIL (0.83 pc).
However, Bajaj Auto fell 2.22 per cent, followed by Tata Steel 1.85 per cent, BHEL 1.51 per cent, Coal India 1.17 per cent and Hindalco 1.00 per cent. Among the BSE sectoral indices, IT rose by 1.78 per cent, followed by teck 1.51 per cent, bankex 0.86 per cent and power 0.51 per cent, while metal fell by 0.77 per cent, auto 0.54 per cent and capital goods 0.29 per cent.
Total market breadth remained positive as 1,377 stocks closed higher, 1,320 finished lower and 138 ruled steady. The total turnover rose to Rs 3,444.17 crore from Rs 3,193.52 crore yesterday.
