Sensex rallies most in 19 months, Nifty closes above 10,450 points
Falling crude prices, recovery in rupee and rebound in global markets boost investor sentiment
Driven by fall in crude prices and the recovery in rupee, the BSE Sensex on Friday posted its biggest single-day gain in 19 months, soaring over 700 points, as global markets rebounded after two straight sessions of losses.
The rupee strengthened 53 paise to 73.59 (intra-day) against the US dollar in the forex market.
Both indices ended the week higher for the first time in six weeks. During the period the Sensex climbed 366.59 points and Nifty rose 156.05 points.
After opening on strong footing, the Sensex advanced to hit a high of 34,808.42 on buying momentum after retail investors returned to the market.
It later gave up some of the gains, but still ended notably higher by 732.43 points, or 2.15%, at 34,733.58. The index posted its biggest single-day gain since March 2017.
The broader Nifty ended the week at 10,472.50, up 237.85 points, or 2.32%. It touched a high of 10,492.45 points in day trade.
Bear operators, who had been creating short-positions in the past several sessions, were seen covering up positions, brokers said.
“The whiplash in equities this week continued as market rallied strongly, driven by a good start to earnings season by information technology (IT) bellwether Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), a drop in crude oil prices, a drop in gilt bond yields and a strengthening currency,” said Sunil Sharma, chief investment officer, Sanctum Wealth Management.
Market has been deeply oversold, and investors were additionally buoyed by news that inflows into equity... Foreign investor (FI) selling was offset by domestic buyers, he added.
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd was the biggest gainer among Sensex scrips, rising 5.89%, followed by Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd up 5.29%.
Other auto stocks like Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp and Tata Motors too rallied after industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) said domestic passenger vehicle sales rose 6.88% to 17,44,305 units in the first half of the current fiscal as compared with 16,32,006 units the same period of previous financial year.
Other prominent gainers included Kotak Mahindra Bank, Coal India, IndusInd Bank, ITC, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, Adani Ports, Asian Paint, Vedanta, Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd, Yes Bank, Housing Development Finance Corp., ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel, PowerGrid, Wipro, Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, Infosys, NTPC and Sun Pharma, rising by up to 4.87%.
TCS was the top loser in the index, with shares falling 3.10% despite posting a record quarterly profit on Thursday, over margin concerns.
Shares of oil marketing companies such as Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd and Indian Oil Corp. Ltd remained strong, rising up to 5.36% on falling global crude oil prices.
Aviation stocks including InterGlobe, Jet Airways and Spicejet also rose up to 6.03%, supported by easing crude prices. Oil prices, after easing near 3% in the previous two days. Brent was trading marginally higher at $80.47 a barrel.
The BSE auto index took the pole position among sectoral indices, surging 4.01%.
Among other sectoral indices, metal index was up 3.83%, realty 3.53%, oil & gas 3.08%, infrastructure 2.99%, FMCG 2.77%, power 2.73%, bankex 2.44%, consumer durables 2.33%, PSU 1.99%, capital goods 1.42% and healthcare 0.73%.
However, IT and teck indices ended down by 0.79% and 0.50%, respectively. The BSE mid-cap index ended higher by 2.63% and small-cap index was up 2.62%.