Business
Sensex, Nifty close over 1 percent on timely monsoon forecast
Mumbai, May 18
A benchmark index for Indian
equities, the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange,
closed 363.30 points, or 1.33 percent, as blue chips surged up after
forecast of a timely monsoon.
Timely monsoon may help the Reserve Bank of India to lower interest rates in its June review.
The
30-share Sensex, which opened at 27,416.97 points, closed at 27,687.30
points -- up 363.30 points, or 1.33 percent, over the previous trading
day's close at 27,324 points. It touched a high of 27,725.97 points and a
low of 27,370.28 points in Monday's trade.
The wider Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also closed 111.30 points or 1.35 percent higher at 8,373.65 points.
As brokerage firm Sharekhan explained: "Bulls are back: Rate cut wish lifts spirits."
"Key
benchmark indices closed higher for second straight session supported
by broadbased rally among the frontliners on anticipation that RBI may
slash the key policy rate in the upcoming monetary policy review on June
2, 2015," tghe firm said.
It added: "Further, well-timed monsoon forecast and slowdown in foreign funds outflows has lifted the trading sentiments."
In
Monday's trade, good buying was observed in consumer durables, oil and
gas and healthcare sectors, while marginal selling pressure was seen in
realty sector.
Among the 12 sector-specific indices of the Mumbai
bourse, consumer durables index gained by 2.16 percent, oil and gas
index moved up by 2.09 percent and healthcare index got augmented by
1.54 percent.
However, realty index dropped by 0.20 percent.
The
100-scrip and 200-scrip indices were up by 1.32 percent and 1.24
percent, respectively. Mid-cap index was higher by around 0.98 percent
and small-cap stocks ended 0.97 percent higher.
The major Sensex
gainers on Monday were: Dr.Reddy's, up 3.48 percent at Rs.3,613.25;
GAIL, up 3.45 percent at Rs.392.80; Tata Power, up 3.08 percent at
Rs.75.20; and HDFC, up 2.34 percent at Rs.1,262.85.
The losers were: Hero MotoCorp, down 0.31 percent at Rs.2,520.60; and NTPC, down 0.07 percent at Rs.136.05.
Among
the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei went up by 0.80 percent, while
China's Shanghai Composite Index went down by 0.59 percent and Hong
Kong's Hang Seng was lower by 0.83 percent.
In Europe, London's
FTSE 100 went down by 0.34 percent, France's CAC 40 fell by 1.14
percent, and Germany's DAX Index was lower by 0.46 percent at the
closing in the Indian markets.