Nifty breaches 8,000-mark, Sensex tops 26k as strong Asia cues spark 386 pts rally

Indian equity markets, after a long break last week, opened on a firm note, mainly drawing optimism from the wide-spread rally in other emerging markets from the Asian pack with local traders broadly taking exposure to interest rate-sensitive stocks after the preceding week’s rate-cut drive by the central bank, which bolstered expectations of a demand revival. Taking off from the last week’s three straight session upsurge, the Sensex today opened 158 points higher and surged 386 points in total to breach the crucial 26,600-mark to touch a high of 26,607.31. The current buoyancy, in addition to over 600 points gains registered last week, stretches the overall lead to around 1,000 points as strength in global markets coupled with the mixed economic readings back home and the government’s urge to kickstart the reform process provided major catalyst to the otherwise lacklustre markets. [caption id=“attachment_2454726” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] At 10.05 am, the 30-share BSE S&P Sensex was at 26,590.03, up 369.08 points, or 1.4 percent from previous close. The broader 50-stock CNX Nifty, too, surpassed the psychological 8,000-mark and was at 8,055.75, up 104.85 points, or 1.3 percent. Market breadth was extremely positive with 1,441 stocks advancing against 374 declines on BSE. Elsewhere in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei was up 1.5 percent, while Chinese indices Hang Seng gained 1.7 percent and Shanghai Composite was up 0.5 percent in early trade, as investors took heart from the weaker-than-expected September US employment data, which tempered expectations of the likely US rate-hike by this year end. Federal Reserve Vice Chairman said “he doesn’t see immediate risks of financial bubbles in the US, while raising concerns that the central bank’s policy tool kit to deal with such occurrences is limited and untested”. Back home, latching upon the banking stocks shares of HDFC jumped 3.4 percent to Rs 1,239.75, ICICI Bank rose nearly 3 percent to Rs 275.30, Axis Bank gained 2 percent to Rs 505.70, SBI added 1.9 percent to Rs 239.85 and HDFC Bank was up 1.6 percent at Rs 1,085.80. Among other gainers, Tata Motors flared up 6.5 percent to Rs 316.20, Tata Steel gained 2.5 percent to Rs 217.45, L&T moved up 2.4 percent to Rs 1,524.50, TCS scaled up 2.3 percent to Rs 2,710 and NTPC was up 1.7 percent at Rs 125.85.