Mumbai: Stocks were on fire today as the Sensex rocketed 500 points to close at an 11-month high of 27,627 and the Nifty above 8,400 on across the board buying amid robust global cues after a solid US jobs report.
It is the biggest single-day gain in over a month for the Sensex. Sentiment moved many notches higher following a rally in global equities as investors cheered a strong US jobs report while a landslide victory for Japan’s ruling coalition in weekend elections boosted stimulus hopes.
Investor focus now shifts to the first leg of corporate earnings. TCS and Infosys are slated to come out with their results on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
Monsoon’s progress, its coverage of most part of India and a stronger possibility of passage of the deadlocked GST Bill in Rajya Sabha offered more positives.
After starting higher, the Sensex ended at an 11-month high of 27,626.69, up 499.79 points, or 1.84 per cent—its biggest single-day gain since May 25 when it had risen 575.70 points.
Today’s closing is highest since August 19 last year when it ended at 27,931.64.
The 50-share NSE Nifty recaptured the 8,400-mark before closing at 8,467.90, gain of 144.70 points, or 1.74 per cent.
“Positive US jobs data and expectations of a good start to the first quarter earnings season helped the market rally,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
“Market participants expect the rising stability in the US economy is unlikely to support the Fed to make any changes in the interest rate in the near term due to the prevailing ambiguity caused by Brexit. This will provide space to EMs like India to attract foreign funds.”
Most other Asian markets closed on a strong footing following a strong weekend rally in the US.
Japan’s Nikkei remained at the forefront, jumping 3.98 per cent, followed by Hong Kong’s 1.54 per cent, Singapore’s 0.97 per cent and the Shanghai Composite’s 0.23 per cent.
European bourses are too trading firmly higher, with Frankfurt’ DAX up 1.20 per cent, Paris CAC 0.70 per cent and UK’s FTSE 0.70 per cent.
Meanwhile, FPIs net bought shares worth Rs 330.62 crore on Friday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
The domination was near complete, as 29 scrips out of 30-share Sensex pack ended higher while Axis Bank lost.
Adani Ports was the top gainer by rising 4.78 per cent. Tata Motors went up 4.15 per cent after the company’s Jaguar Land Rover reported 22 per cent jump in global retail sales in first half the year.
So did ICICI Bank (3.44 per cent), SBI (2.84 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (2.84 per cent), Coal India (2.84 per cent), Tata Steel (2.72 per cent) and Hero MotoCorp (2.52 per cent).
Among BSE sectoral indices, metal rose the most by 2.46 per cent, followed by auto 2.19 per cent, banking 2.07 per cent, PSU 2.06 per cent and realty 2.05 per cent.
Mid-cap and small-cap firmed up 1.49 and 0.79 per cent, respectively, on fresh buying by retail investors.
PTI