Sensex jumps over 900 points

After a flat start to the trade, the 30-share BSE benchmark gauge Sensex bounced back and jumped 953.18 points to 81,905.17 in late morning deals. The NSE Nifty surged 299.35 points to 24,909.05

Mumbai: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty rebounded sharply on Friday, driven by buying in blue-chip IT stocks and consumer goods major ITC. After a flat start to the trade, the 30-share BSE benchmark gauge Sensex bounced back and jumped 953.18 points to 81,905.17 in late morning deals. The NSE Nifty surged 299.35 points to 24,909.05.

From the Sensex firms, ITC, Eternal, Power Grid, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and HCL Tech were among the biggest gainers. Sun Pharma emerged as the only laggard.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng were trading in the positive territory, while South Korea’s Kospi and Shanghai’s SSE Composite index quoted lower.

US markets ended largely flat on Thursday. “After the 14 per cent pullback from the March lows, the market is struggling to find a direction. It appears that the sustained FII buying, which played an important role in this rally, has run out of steam.

“The big FII selling on 20th and 22nd of this month indicates that the FIIs may again turn sellers if the global environment turns unfavourable,” VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Ltd, said.

The silver lining was India’s strong macros, particularly the resilient growth and declining inflation and interest rates, he said. “Even when the market turns weak, domestic demand-driven segments like financials, telecom, aviation etc are resilient and this is reflected in the strength in the stock prices of the big boys in these segments like ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and InterGlobe Aviation,” Vijayakumar added.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.57 per cent to USD 64.07 a barrel. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 5,045.36 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data. On Thursday, the BSE Sensex tanked 644.64 points or 0.79 per cent to settle at 80,951.99. The Nifty tumbled 203.75 points or 0.82 per cent to 24,609.70.