Sensex closes above 17,000

A positive sentiment across Asia and Europe triggered investments in India, with both benchmark stock indices gaining more than one per cent each today. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30-share Sensex managed to close above the 17,000-mark, as investors bought shares across sectors. The broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended the day above the 5,100-mark.

While global sentiments received a shot in the arm after the US reported strong housing data for April, Indian investors expressed optimism over the impressive domestic growth in May. Incidentally, India’s manufacturing sector expanded the fastest in two years during the month, guided primarily by a sharp increase in production backed by new orders.

The Sensex opened on a positive note at 16,786, before heading north to touch an intra-day high of 17,073. All index constituents ended in the green, as the Sensex gained 1.7 per cent, or 280.49 points, to close at 17,022.33. All sectoral indices traded in the positive territory, with the market breadth showing more than two gainers for every loser.

The 50-share Nifty ended the day at 5110.50, up 1.81 per cent, or 90.65 points.

Reliance Communications was in the limelight after the company clarified it had been “receiving various proposals from time to time from reputed international telecom companies expressing to acquire a strategic equity stake”. The stock surged 6.37 per cent to Rs 164.45.

Other leading gainers included Tata Motors, NTPC, ONGC, Hindustan Unilevers, Infosys Technologies and Sterlite Industries.

Copper for delivery in three months rose 1.3 per cent on the London Metal Exchange. Aluminium advanced more than one per cent. Crude oil for July delivery gained 0.6 per cent to $73.27 a barrel in New York.

Meanwhile, provisional figures showed foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs 406 crore. Domestic financial institutions bought equities worth Rs 79 crore today.

The overnight US markets displayed optimism on the back of strong six-month-high housing data for April. The S&P 500 gained more than two per cent, or 226 points, on Wednesday, with future contracts on the index signalling another gap-up opening on Thursday. The MSCI World Index, a measure of equities in 24 developed nations, rose 1.1 per cent.

Leading Asian equity indices surged, with the Nikkei gaining 3.24 per cent, or 311 points. Kospi rose nearly two per cent. Taiwan and Indonesia saw their benchmark indices gain more than two per cent each. In Europe, UK’s FTSE was trading higher by 1.73 per cent.