Infosys results boosts Sensex by 162 points

Mumbai 30/09/2009 Sensex Breaches 17,000: Busy employee at a stock broker's office in Mumbai. The BSE 30-share sensitive index move decisively to cross the 17,000 point mark, moving up 273.93 points to close the day at 17,126.84 points. Photo: Vivek Bendre

The BSE benchmark Sensex rose by almost 162 points in opening trade on Wednesday on the back of positive Q2 earnings results from IT bellwether Infosys.

The 30-share index, which lost 20.76 points in the previous session, shot up by 162.10 points, or 0.98 per cent, to 16,698.57 in the first five minutes of trade today, with IT, tech, metal and banking sector stocks leading the rise.

Similarly, the broad-based National Stock Exchange Nifty index rose by 48.75 points, or 0.98 per cent, to 5,023.10.

Analysts said keen buying interest from foreign funds, coupled with a firming trend in other Asian markets, led to the rise in the stock market.

They said IT stocks were in the limelight after Infosys’ consolidated Q2 net profit rose by 9.72 per cent to Rs 1,906 crore.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up by 0.46 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei Index was down 0.67 per cent in morning trade.