Sensex soars nearly 400 pts in early trade; Nifty reclaims 8,000-mark

Indian equities were off to a firm beginning early Friday, enthused by extended upsurge in overnight US markets and further recovery in other key Asian indices, although domestic investors continue to remain guarded over the hazy global outlook which could trigger sharp intra-day volatility in the near term. Riding on the back of global markets recovery, investors continued to cover their short positions leading to upturn in IT, metal, oil & gas and realty shares. [caption id=“attachment_2411528” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] As a result, the Sensex, after a positive opening, surged nearly 400 points to touch a high of 26,623.32. At 10.15 am, the 30-share BSE S&P Sensex was at 26,619.43, up 388.24 points or 1.5 percent from previous close. The broader 50-share CNX Nifty breached the 8,000-mark to quote at 8,071.60, up 122.65 points, or 1.5 percent. Market breadth was upbeat with 1,513 stocks advancing against 351 declines on BSE. Overseas, major US indices such as Dow Jones, tech-heavy Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose over 2 percent at close on Thursday. In Asia, Chinese indices Shanghai Composite index jumped nearly 2 percent while Hang Seng was up nearly 1 percent in early trades and Japan’s Nikkei shot up 2.6 percent despite a mixed July data. At a time when the Chinese economy seems to be tapering off, the US economy maintained optimism as the official data showed the growth in second quarter grew more than the previous estimates, which was revised upwards to 3.7 percent from the earlier projection of 2.3 percent reported last month. Oil and other commodity-related stocks extended gains after growing nervousness over the fading Chinese economy had triggered massive sell-off in recent weeks. Among the gainers in Sensex pack, shares of ONGC shot up nearly 6 percent to Rs 244.40, GAIL rose 3.7 percent to Rs 291.40, Vedanta jumped 3.6 percent to Rs 94.40 and Hindalco was up 3.5 percent at Rs 83.45. Other major gainers such as Infosys, Axis Bank, NTPC, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, Tata Steel, SBI, BHEL and Dr Reddy’s were up 2-3 percent.