HDFC, RIL drive Sensex rally

Healthy buying was witnessed in banking and finance stocks.

Indian stock markets snapped their four-day bearish sentiment led by gains in HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
The benchmarks opened higher and rallied to close near the day's highs at 806 points to touch an intraday high of 37,745.60 and Nifty 50 index at intraday high of 11,112.
The Sensex ended 748 points or 2 per cent higher at 37,687.91 and Nifty rallied 204 points or 1.87 per cent to close at 11,095.25.
Seventeen of 19 sector gauges compiled by the BSE ended higher led by the S&P BSE Energy index's 5.6 per cent gain. Banking, finance, auto, realty, consumer discretionary, healthcare and industrial shares also witnessed buying interest. On the other hand, IT shares witnessed selling pressure during the session. Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as the S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap indexes rose over a per cent each, reported Indian media.
HDFC Bank was top Nifty gainer, recording 6 per cent jump after the Reserve Bank of India approved appointment of Sashidhar Jagdishan as managing director & ceo of the bank for a period of three years. He will be taking charge as the MD and CEO on October 27, 2020, the bank added. Sashidhar Jagdishan will replace Aditya Puri, who is due to retire as managing director of the Bank on October 26, 2020.
Reliance Industries rallied 7.4 per cent to Rs2,158 on the back of heavy volumes. Reliance Industries alone contributed over 400 points towards gain in the Sensex, BSE data showed.
The top gainers include Zee Entertainment, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC, Dr Reddy's Labs, ICICI Bank and Sun Pharma recording jump between 2-6 per cent. Among the losers were Tech Mahindra, BPCL, IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors, Grasim Industries and GAIL India.
Meanwhile, the Indian rupee pared some of its initial losses and settled 3 paise down at 75.04 (provisional) against the US dollar to quote at Dh20.44 on Tuesday, even as domestic equity market was trading with significant gains.
The rupee opened weak at 75.13 at the interbank forex market, then pared some of its early losses to settle at 75.04 against the US dollar, down 3 paise over its previous close of 75.01 against the greenback.
During the session, the domestic unit witnessed an intra-day high of 74.85 and a low of 75.17 against the American currency.
Forex traders said, while positive equity market and foreign fund inflows supported the rupee, factors like weak Asian currencies and rising COVID-19 cases dragged down the local unit.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.08 per cent to 93.46.
The Sensex was trading at 37,588.79, higher by 649.19 points or1.76 per cent in mid-day, having opened at 37,092.86. The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 11,056.85, higher by 165.25 points or 1.52 per cent from its previous close.
Following the positive global cues amid upbeat manufacturing data globally, Indian market was trading higher.
"Nifty50 and BSE Sensex both were up by 2 per cent. In nifty50 gain was led by HDFC Bank which was up by 6 per cent as RBI approved Shashidhar jagdishan as new CEO of HDFC Bank who is the top choice of Bank for CEO," said Arun Leslie John, Chief Market Analyst, Century Financial.
Healthy buying was witnessed in banking and finance stocks. Further, gains in the Asian markets also supported the domestic indices, analysts said.
- With inputs from agencies, sandhya@khaleejtimes.com