RBI's surprise rate cut helps Sensex close higher by 729 points

Mumbai: A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Thursday closed trading 728.73 points or 2.66 percent up after the Reserve Bank of India carried out an unscheduled repo rate cut by 25 basis points. All the sectors ended in green. The rally was led by banking, auto, capital goods, realty, oil and gas, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and consumer durables sectors.  The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 27,831.16 points, closed at 28,075.55 points, up 728.73 points or 2.66 percent from the previous day’s close at 27,346.82 points. The Sensex has touched a high of 28,194.61 points and a low of 27,703.70 points in the trade. The S&P BSE bankex surged by 701.71 points, auto index gained by 402.26 points, capital goods index moved up by 374.31 points, realty index scaled up by 119.25 points, oil and gas index inched up by 191.95 points, consumer durables index got augmented by 106.53 points and FMCG index went up by 107.06 points. The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed trading 216.60 points or 2.62 percent up at 8,494.15 points. “The huge market gap today tells us that the rate cut has come as a healthy surprise. Based on 1ast couple of inflation data, there was already room for lowering rates as much as 50bps, but the timing was unknown. 25bps cut is a curtain raiser,” said Vinod Nair, head, fundamental research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd. “The markets today witnessed a gap up opening on the back of the surprise move by RBI. The buying for the day was mainly seen in the rate sensitive stocks like banks, realty, auto and capital goods stocks,” said Alex Mathews, head, research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd said. The major Sensex gainers were: Housing Development & Infrastructure Ltd., up 18.59 percent at Rs.78.15; DLF, up 10.39 percent at Rs.147.20; Jaiprakash Associates Ltd., up 8.18 percent at Rs.25.80 and Unitech Ltd, up 8.01 percent at Rs.16.85. The losers were: Federal Bank Ltd, down 2.20 percent at Rs.144.80 and Godrej Consumer Products Ltd., down 1.54 percent at Rs.1,070.10. Among the Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei went up by 1.86 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 0.99 percent points higher and China’s Shanghai Composite Index, gained by 3.52 percent. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was down by 0.16 percent, Germany’s DAX Index was up by 0.33 percent and France’s CAC 40 was higher by 0.06 percent. IANS