Mumbai :The China factor, for a change, gave markets some cheer today as a late surge in Chinese equities propelled the benchmark BSE Sensex by 424 points, which signed off above the psychological 25,000-level.
The rub-off effect was visible on the NSE Nifty, which too picked up.
The meeting of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi with industry captains, bankers and economists to discuss ways and means to support the economy amid a global slowdown gave investors a lot to chew on, which in turn boosted sentiment.
“The government’s meeting with corporate leaders acknowledging global concerns that are impacting India has calmed the market,” Vinod Nair, Head-Fundamental Research at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
Financial stocks took the centre-stage as speculation whirred around the possibility of the Reserve Bank going for a dilution of its proposed rules on base rates.
The rupee, at 66.54, looked a lot better as it shaped up from its previous two-year low, which improved the overall mood.
Tracking a firming global market, the 30-share barometer bounced back in afternoon deals and surged to day’s high of 25,411 before ending at 25,317.87, a solid gain of 424.06 points, or 1.70 per cent.
The gauge had lost 870.97 points in the past two sessions in large measure due to worries on China and rains deficit.
The 50-issue NSE Nifty reclaimed the 7,700-mark for a while before it finally settled higher by 129.45 points, or 1.71 per cent, at 7,688.25.
GAIL added the most, up 6.48 per cent, followed by Tata Steel, BHEL and Axis Bank.
The banking index was the toast of town as it jumped a neat 3.61 per cent even as power, capital goods, realty and metal rallied too.
The BSE mid-cap index recovered 1.02 per cent and the small-cap 0.60 per cent.
China’s Shanghai Composite, which had been on a sticky wicket of late, ended 2.92 per cent higher while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 3.28 per cent. However, Japan’s Nikkei shed 2.43 per cent.
European shares traded in the green in their early hours.
PTI