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Sensex gains more than 280 points; oil and gas stocks rise

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Mumbai, June 18 :A day after the US Federal Reserve decided to further postpone its rate hike, bullish sentiments prevailed at the Indian equities markets on Thursday and a barometer index close the day's trade more than 280 points up.


The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) gained more than 283.17 points or 1.06 percent during the day's trade. 

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed the day's trade in the positive territory. It closed 83.05 points or 1.03 percent up at 8,174.60 points.

The Sensex, which opened at 26,916.99 points, closed the day's trade at 27,115.83 points, up 283.17 points or 1.06 percent from the previous day's close at 26,832.66 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 27,175.39 points and a low of 26,910.26 points in the intra-day trade.

According to analysts tracking the day's trade, the markets opened on a positive note and remained in the higher territory on the back of easing concerns of monsoon and a possible interest rate hike in the US.

The US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) said a hike in interest rate would be appropriate when the labour market improves and the inflation was likely to rise.

"Surprisingly, India rallied ahead from the breather seen yesterday from the FOMC meet and commodity prices, in spite of consolidation in the rest of the world today," said Vinod Nair, head of fundamental research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

"Domestically, few factors have helped to improve the sentiment like better-than-expected monsoon, consumer price index (CPI) and increase in MSP (minimum support price)," Nair added.

Gaurav Jain, director with Hem Securities said: "The strengthening of the rupee at a three-month strong level cheered the sentiment. Banking, financials, oil and gas, technology, auto and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks led the rally on the bourses."

On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve decided not to raise interest rates in June, but signalled that the long-awaited rate hike could come in September as economic activity picks up.

The Fed had slashed interest rates to near zero percent in December 2008 to help rejuvenate the battered economy.

The US rate hike might effect the Indian markets as higher lending rates in the US are expected to lead FPIs (Foreign Portfolio Investors) away from emerging markets like India.

During the intra-day trade on Thursday, healthy buying took place in the oil and gas, consumer durables, automobile, healthcare, banks and capital goods stocks.

However, realty scrip came under selling pressure.

The S&P BSE oil and gas index zoomed by 249.52 points, followed by the consumer durables index which augmented by 216.40 points, automobile index edged higher by 213.86 points, healthcare index increased by 212.09 points, banking index rose by 170.17 points and capital goods index was up by 146.61 points.

The S&P BSE realty index slipped by 2.86 points.

The major Sensex gainers during Thursday's trade were: Reliance Insutries, up 5.15 percent at Rs.979.05; Tata Motors, up 2.71 points at Rs.445.45; ONGC, up 2.16 percent at Rs.312.65; Wipro, up 1.94 percent at Rs.556.40; and HDFC Bank, up 1.44 percent at Rs.1,019.10.

The major Sensex losers were: Cipla, down 0.99 percent at Rs.606.90; Coal India, down 0.82 percent at Rs.394.50; Tata Steel, down 0.49 percent at Rs.303.60; NTPC, down 0.37 percent at Rs.136.45; and Gail, down 0.22 percent at Rs.399.15.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed lower 1.13 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell by 3.66 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down by 0.22 percent.

In Europe, the London FTSE 100 was lower by 0.02 percent, the French CAC 40 declined by 0.61 percent and Germany's DAX Index was down by 0.63 percent at the closing bell here.