Driven by fall in crude prices and the recovery in rupee, the BSE Sensex on Friday posted its biggest single-day gain in 19 months, soaring over 700 points, as global markets rebounded after two straight sessions of losses.
The rupee strengthened 53 paise to 73.59 (intra-day) against the US dollar in the forex market.
Both indices ended the week higher for the first time in six weeks. During the period the Sensex climbed 366.59 points and Nifty rose 156.05 points.
After opening on strong footing, the Sensex advanced to hit a high of 34,808.42 on buying momentum after retail investors returned to the market.
It later gave up some of the gains, but still ended notably higher by 732.43 points, or 2.15 per cent, at 34,733.58.
The index posted its biggest single-day gain since March 2017.
The broader Nifty ended the week at 10,472.50, up 237.85 points, or 2.32 per cent. It touched a high of 10,492.45 points in day trade.
Investors lapped up recently-hammered auto, realty, metal, oil and gas, FMCG, banking, power, infrastructure, IT, auto, and capital goods stocks amid unabated funds inflow by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) ahead of the release of key IIP numbers for August and inflation data for September scheduled later in the day.
Bear operators, who had been creating short-positions in the past several sessions, were seen covering up positions, brokers said.
“The whiplash in equities this week continued as market rallied strongly, driven by a good start to earnings season by IT bellwether TCS, a drop in crude oil prices, a drop in gilt bond yields and a strengthening currency,” said Sunil Sharma, Chief Investment Officer, Sanctum Wealth Management.
Market has been deeply oversold, and investors were additionally buoyed by news that inflows into equity... Foreign investor (FI) selling was offset by domestic buyers, he added. Maruti Suzuki was the biggest gainer among Sensex scrips, rising 5.89 per cent, followed by M&M up 5.29 per cent.
Other auto stocks like Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp and Tata Motors too rallied after industry body SIAM said domestic passenger vehicle sales rose 6.88 per cent to 17,44,305 units in the first half of the current fiscal as compared with 16,32,006 units the same period of previous financial year.
Other prominent gainers included Kotak Bank, Coal India, IndusInd Bank, ITC, RIL, Tata Steel, Adani Ports, Asian Paint, Vedanta, ONGC, Yes Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HUL, Bharti Airtel, PowerGrid, Wipro, L&T, Axis Bank, Infosys, NTPC and Sun Pharma, rising by up to 4.87 per cent.
TCS was the top loser in the index, with shares falling 3.10 per cent despite posting a record quarterly profit Thursday, over margin concerns.Shares of oil marketing companies such as HPCL, BPCL and IOC remained strong, rising up to 5.36 per cent on falling global crude oil prices.
Aviation stocks including InterGlobe, Jet Airways and Spicejet also rose up to 6.03 per cent, supported by easing crude prices.
Oil prices, after easing near 3 per cent in the previous two days. Brent was trading marginally higher at $80.47 a barrel.
