Sensex zooms 611 points, its biggest 1-day gain in 2 yrs
The BSE Sensex on Monday spurted by 611 points — its biggest single-day gain in two years — to finish at one-week high of 33,917.94 following a global relief rally as trade war fears abated on growing optimism over the US economy.
Investors lapped up recently battered metal, oil & gas, FMCG, banking, power, infrastructure, IT, auto, and capital goods stocks amid fresh capital inflows by foreign funds ahead of key IIP and inflation data to be released after market hours today, brokers said.
After opening on a strong footing, the Sensex advanced to hit a high of 33,962.48 on the back of fresh buying by domestic funds and retail investors. However, later it gave up some of the gains but still ended up by 610.55 points, or 1.83%, at one-week high of 33,917.94 .
The index posted its biggest single-day gain since March 1, 2016, when it had jumped 777.35. The broader Nifty finished at 10,421.40, up 194.55 points, or 1.90% with 47 of its components closing with gains. It touched a high of 10,433.65 points in day trade.
Bharti Airtel rose the most by 4.68% among Sensex scrips its board approved raising up to ₹16,500 crore for refinancing debt and paying for spectrum liabilities. Index major ITC surged 4.09% after cigarette cess was kept unchanged at the GST (goods and services tax) Council meet.
NTPC climbed 4.33% after Moody’s Investors Service has assigned a Baa2 rating to the proposed senior unsecured Dollar notes to be issued by NTPC Limited. Other prominent gainers included Tata Steel, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, Adani Ports, ONGC, Wipro, IndusInd Bank, HDFC, Infosys, RIL, HUL, L&T, Sun Pharma, Kotak Bank, Dr Reddy’s, HDFC Bank, TCS and Asian Paints.
Auto stocks rose after domestic passenger vehicle sales increased by 7.77% to 2,75,329 units in February. Tata Motors rose by 3.07%, Hero MotoCorp 2.75%, Maruti Suzuki 1.69%, M&M 1.02% and Bajaj Auto 0.75%.
“Firm global cues and expectation of ease in domestic inflation to 4.74% excited investors to utilise the bargain opportunity. The fear of global trade war is somewhat factored in the market while, increase in US payroll data suggest stability in the economy, which boosted the global trade,” Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd said.
Asian and European markets extended their last weekend’s rally after a positive US jobs report that showed the American economy continued to strengthen without the prior month’s rapid wage gains.
“Asian stocks boosted sentiment on the domestic bourses while global stocks gained as international trade-war concerns abated and were replaced by economic optimism following a stronger US jobs report released over the weekend,” Karthikraj Lakshmanan, senior fund manager — equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund said.
Trading was brisk across global markets. Shanghai Composite gained 0.59%, Singapore up 0.97%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged higher 1.93% and Japan Nikkei up 1.65%. European markets were higher in early trade, with Frankfurt’s DAX rising 0.52% and Paris CAC 40 up 0.14%. London’s FTSE rose 0.04%.
MUMBAI: