Sensex, Nifty surge most in 7 weeks on RBI hopes; rupee gains 0.6%
The country’s equity markets surged the highest in the last seven weeks on hopes that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will maintain status quo on the interest rate front. Also, concern that the US Fed may taper its quantitative easing programme further eased, thus aiding the rally.
The S&P BSE Sensex surged 375.72 points or 1.82% to close at 21134.21 while the NSE’s CNX Nifty rose 101.30 points or by 1.64% to end the day at 6272.75. In percentage terms, this is the highest rise since November 25, 2013 (when the Sensex rose 1.92%).
The markets had a gap-up opening after the rupee opened on a stronger note after the weak US jobs data led to weakening of the dollar and reduced investors’ concerns about the Fed tapering.
The Indian rupee finally gained 39 paise, or 0.63%, against the dollar to close at a one-month high of 61.52.
Friday’s weak factory output numbers, the worst in last six months, too, raised hopes that the RBI may not go ahead with another rate hike.
All the sectoral indices on the BSE barring the healthcare index closed in the green with IT, oil and gas and banking indices rising the most by 2.92%, 2.24% and 2.04% respectively. The IT stocks were the major gainers on the back of good results by Infosys that reported rise in operating margins and also raised its revenue guidance last week. Infosys shares rose as much as 3.5% during intra-day trading to touch their lifetime high of Rs 3,674.40 before closing the day at Rs 3,665.70, up 3.29%. Similarly, the stock of TCS and HCL Tech gained 3.88% and 3.51% respectively on hopes of better-than-expected results.
The foreign institutional investors stood net buyers of equities worth Rs 414 crore on Monday while the domestic institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 318 crore. Going ahead, market experts believe news that the consumer price index or CPI stood at 9.87% in December, lower than the consensus expectation of 10%, will further aid the market sentiments in coming sessions.
