Sensex at 32-month high led by financials

Markets hit 32-month highs on Thursday led by financial and FMCG shares after the US Fed decided to continue to stimulus measures

The Sensex hit 32-month high on Thursday led by financial and FMCG shares after the US Federal Reserve late Wednesday surpringly decided to continue with its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program for at least another month sent.

The BSE benchmark index soared over 600 points, or 3.1%, to 20,581, its highest level since January 2011 in intra-day trades today on expectation that fund flows into emerging markets including India would continue as the US Federal Reserve's surprisingly decided to continue its stimulus programme .

At 1PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 3% or 590 points at 20,567 and the 50-share Nifty was up 3.3% or 193 points at 6,093    

In Asian, shares and currencies too surged across the board on Thursday, as the continuation of the stimulus in the world's largest economy boosted investor sentiment.
Jakarta was the top gainer in the region up nearly 5%. Among other indices in the region, Nikkei, Straits Times, Hang Seng and Shanghai COmposite were up 0.3-1.8% each.

Meanwhile, investors are eagerly waiting the monetary policy review under the new governor Raghuram Rajan.

Although rate cuts are unlikely on account of high inflationary levels, market participants will now see whether the central bank withdraws the liquidity-tightening measures announced mid-July.

Rupee strengthened significantly in today’s trade tracking other emerging market currencies after US Federal Reserve continued with its bond-buying plan.

At 1PM, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 61.73 per dollar against the yesterday’s close of 63.38 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.

All sectoral indices on the BSE were in the green except IT with Bankex leading the gains up nearly 7% followed by Realty, Capital Goods, Metal and FMCG indices. IT index was marginally down on account of appreciation in the Indian rupee.

ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC and SBI were up 4-8% each while in the FMCG space ITC and Hindustan Unilever were up 2.6-4.6% each.

Other gainers include, L&T, ONGC, Reliance Ind, Bharti Airtel and Mah&Mah.

Bharti Airtel that has rallied over 5% at Rs 355 on reports that Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel), the largest foreign investor in the company pledges support to lead a consolidation drive of the local telecoms industry.


Market breadth continued to remain strong with 1,246 gainers and 871 losers on the BSE.