Sensex Surges Over 700 Points, Nifty Above 17,250; Rupee Appreciates By 24 Paise

The domestic equity on Friday opened higher, with the BSE Sensex surging about 702 points or 1.21 per cent to 58,662.53 and the NSE Nifty trading up by nearly 200 points or 1.17 per cent up at 17,280.40 in the early trade. The rupee also appreciated by 24 paise to 82.10 against the US dollar in the early trade.

In the 30-share constituent Sensex, 26 shares were trading in the green, while only 4 shares were in the red. Reliance, HCL Tech, ICICI Bank, Nestle and Tech Mahindra were among the top gainers rising by up to 3.27 per cent. However, Sun Pharma, Asian Paints, ITC and Bajaj Finance were in the red, down by up to 0.53 per cent.

Broader markets also extended the rally, the S&P BSE MidCap rising 241.73 point or 1.01 per cent to 24,079.41 and the S&P SmallCap jumping 404.51 points or 1.52 per cent at 27,003.23.

V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said, “There are signs of the global equity markets, led by the mother market US, coming out of the banking contagion fears. The fact that there has been no further bank failures or major stress in the system, is good news for equity markets. Nifty valuations are now reasonable and this has prompted FIIs to turn buyers in the last two days.”

He added that the market is oversold and this can lead to short-covering and a tactical rally in the near-term. But a sustained rally is unlikely since FIIs will again turn sellers at higher levels. “The coming days will witness a lot of data/news driven market activity. Auto sales numbers on April 1st, MPC decision on interest rates on April 6th and Q4 results starting April 13th will trigger lots of movements in stock prices.”

The domestic equity markets were closed on Thursday on account of ‘Ram Navami’. However, on Wednesday, benchmark Sensex had settled higher by 346 points while Nifty inched closer to the 17,100 level in a volatile trade on Wednesday driven by foreign fund inflows and firm trends in global markets.

Rupee Gains 24 Paise

The rupee also appreciated by 24 paise to 82.10 against the US dollar in the early trade.

Gains in the local stock market and weakness in the US dollar in early Asian trade also boosted the rupee sentiment.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened higher at 82.12 and stayed in the green in early trade. It moved in a range of 82.16 to 82.10 in early deals.

The rupee had closed lower by 18 paise at 82.34 to a dollar on Wednesday. The forex market was closed on Thursday for Ram Navami.

Anil Kumar Bhansali, head of (treasury) at Finrex Treasury Advisors, said “The dollar index fell to 102.14 levels, and Asian currencies gained against the dollar risk on sentiments prevailed in the market. The Dow Jones was up overnight and SGX nifty was also up this morning as markets came out from the banking crisis arising out of SVB and Credit Suisse banks. Yen was down to below 133 levels against the US dollar while Euro was up to 1.0926 levels keeping the risk-on sentiments prevalent in the market.”

He added that the rupee opened stronger this morning as IT companies hedge their exposures, due to the financial year end, and could go above 82.

Rahul Kalantri, vice-president (commodities) of Mehta Equities, said, “As per the daily technical chart, we observed that the pair is trading below its trend-line support level of 82.50 and RSI is fetching below 50 levels. Looking at the technical set-up, MACD is showing negative divergence and the pair is facing a steep resistance at higher levels. The pair faces steep resistance around 82.55-82.85 zone while support is placed at 82.22-82.00.”

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures declined by 0.24 per cent to USD 79.08 per barrel. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned net buyers in the capital market on Wednesday as they bought shares worth Rs 1,245.39 crore, as per exchange data.

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