Sensex hits fresh 16-mth high; auto stocks drive rally

Mumbai: After a day’s pause, benchmark Sensex resumed its upward march by regaining almost 109 points to end at new 16-month high of 28,532.11 and the broader NSE Nifty reclaimed the 8,800-mark, driven by auto stocks on upbeat August sales data amid positive global cues. Though, investors remained cautious awaiting US jobs data to be released later in the day which would give cues about whether the Federal Reserve goes for early rate hike or not. [caption id=“attachment_2407212” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] On a weekly basis, the Sensex climbed 749.86 points or 2.69 per cent and the NSE Nifty soared 237.10 points or 2.76 per cent, biggest weekly gains in over two months. Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd, said, “Though markets were subdued early in the day, the recovery in telecom stocks from yesterdays panic fall helped indices swing higher. Auto and banks continued the uptrend, and broader market sentiments remained upbeat towards better growth in the second half of the year.” “To that end, it seemed as if markets were less worried about impending US non-farm payrolls data and the potential of a September rate hike from US,” he added. The rupee strengthening by 10 paise to 66.85 (intra-day) against the dollar during the day also positively impacted trading sentiment. Country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki emerged as top gainer in the auto segment, surging 1.98 per cent to Rs 5,158.50 after the company yesterday posted a 12.2 per cent rise in total sales for August. Also, shares of Auto major Mahindra and Mahindra rose 1.17 per cent to Rs 1,468.85 after the company reported a 14 per cent rise in total sales to 40,591 units in August. Hero MotoCorp, country’s largest two-wheeler maker’s stock, gained 0.89 per cent to Rs 3,578.55 after the company reported a 28 per cent increase in sales at 6,16,424 units in August, while Bajaj Auto rose 0.11 per cent to Rs 2,999.85 despite the company reported a 5 per cent decline in its total sales in August. Tata Motors too evoked sizeable buying support and gained 1.13 per cent to Rs 549.80 after its sales in August jumped 6 per cent to 43,061 units. Telecom stocks such as Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communication staged a comeback after yesterday’s plunge, rising up to 2.66 per cent. Telecom stocks suffered huge losses in yesterday’s trade after Mukesh Ambani announced the launch of much-talked about Jio 4G service, offering free voice calls and national roaming.