The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30-share sensitive index (Sensex), on Friday, surged by over 337 points or 1.95 per cent on the back of the bond-buying decision by the European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, in an effort to save the Euro-zone. The move is widely expected to result in foreign fund flows to Indian shores.
The Sensex closed at 17683.73. Capital goods stocks led the rally with a gain of 3.04 per cent followed by realty (2.70 per cent), metal (2.66 per cent) and banks (2.29 per cent).
All sectoral indices ended in the positive territory.
Broader indices also gained as the BSE 100 surged by 1.77 per cent, BSE 200 by 1.71 per cent and BSE 500 by 1.63 per cent.
On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the 50-share Nifty gained 103.70 points or 1.98 per cent at 5342.10
Mr. Draghi said that policy-makers had agreed to an unlimited bond purchase programme to regain control of interest rates in the Eurozone and fight speculation of a currency (Euro) break-up.
“Essentially, this has triggered the market sentiment,” said Varun Goel, Head, Portfolio Management Services, Karvy Stock Broking. “This would result in lot of global liquidity going into risky assets such as emerging markets equities, commodities and crude oil and some of these funds will also come to Indian equities,” Mr. Goel added.
Shares of oil marketing companies (OMC) fell after Jaipal Reddy, Union Petroleum Minister, said that there was no immediate plan to hike price of petrol or any other oil products.
Special session
The BSE and the NSE will conduct a special trading session on Saturday. The BSE is holding the trading session to test its disaster recovery software.
The trading will start at 11.15 hours and close at 12.45 hours on both exchanges.
Rupee gains 30 paise
The ECB’s bond buying plans also helped the rupee to gain against the dollar in line with the stocks and Asian currencies.
The rupee closed at 55.3550/36 a dollar compared to its previous close of 55.65/66. It moved in a range of 55.3825 to 55.63 during the trade. For the week, the rupee rose 0.3 percent against the dollar.
