Strengthening rupee, reforms, rains buoy markets

A strengthening rupee, efforts to restart reforms and expectation of more rain, coupled with positive Asian market cues, propelled the barometer index of Indian equities to gain 341 points during the mid-afternoon session on Tuesday.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) rose 341 points or 1.37 percent.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too made gains during the session. It was higher by 108.05 points or 1.43 percent at 7,666.85 points.

The S&P BSE Sensex, which opened at 24,972.01 points, was trading at 25,235.25 points (at 2.00 p.m.) - up 341.44 points or 1.37 percent from the previous day's close at 24,893.81 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 25,243.59 points and a low of 24,833.54 points in the intra-day trade so far.

Analysts pointed out that government's consultative efforts to understand the problems of India Inc at the time of global markets turmoil and positive Asian market cues, boosted the Indian equity markets.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held a high level consultative meeting on 'Recent Global Events: Opportunities for India' here. The meeting was attended by over 40 delegates, including top government officials, industry representatives and leading sectoral experts.

"The PM's meeting today sent a very positive sign to the markets -- that even the PM is aware of the problems faced by the economy and the government is keen to initiate action and reforms," Alex Mathews, head, research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

"The top industry representative would have pointed out the problems of credit and other worries faced by them."

According to Mathews, the market's upward trajectory is being supported by the domestic retail and institutional investors, who have been investing in stocks, while the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) are shipping-out funds.

"We have seen time and gain that the DIIs have been active in the markets and are supporting the upward movement. Even the Chinese Shanghai stock exchange showed some improvements and gains," Mathews said.

Sector-wise, healthy buying was observed by banking, capital goods, automobile, metal and oil and gas stocks.

However, intense selling was observed in BSE's consumer goods, healthcare and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks.

The S&P BSE banking index zoomed by 603.31 points, capital goods index augmented by 345.59 points, automobile index gained by 225.80 points, metal index rose by 199.28 points and oil and gas index was higher by 86.55 points.

The S&P BSE consumer durables index plunged by 188.03 points, FMCG index receded by 60.18 points and healthcare index sank by 48.31 points.