Sensex jumps nearly 500 pts to touch new 2016 high; 6 key points to know

Key benchmark share indices, Sensex & Nifty, witnessed stupendous rally thanks to sharp uptrend in other Asian gauges as investors took cues from the Friday’s upsurge in the US markets. [caption id=“attachment_2418348” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Here are the key points that fuelled a massive rally in domestic stocks. 1) After starting with gains of over 200 points at the opening bell, the 30-share benchmark Sensex raced past 27,600-mark to touch a high of 27,612.86, up 486 points. Today’s high touched by Sensex is the highest since October 2015. The broader 50-stock CNX Nifty also hit an 11-month high and was at 8,448.95, up 125.75 points, or 1.51 percent. 2) On Friday, the US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 1.40 percent higher, buoyed by strong jobs data. Beating the media forecast following a weak May report, the US government said it added 287,000 jobs in June. Mirroring the gains, other key Asian gauges such as Japan’s Nikkei shot up 4.6 percent to 15,800.15 after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling party’s victory in parliamentary elections boosted hopes for a fresh stimulus. Others such as China’s Hang Seng rose 1.5 percent to 20,875.70 and Shanghai Composite gained 1.1 percent to 3,020.27. Besides this, Jakarta Composite, Straits Times and Seoul Composite jumped over 1-1.5 percent each. 3) All the sectoral indices traded in the green, with investors cheering monsoon spreading across several parts of the country. Besides, prospects of several key bills, including the GST, could be passed in this monsoon session of parliament starting next week also boosted investors’ confidence. 4) The BSE Auto index was the biggest gainer, rising over 2.1 percent followed by BSE Bankex (up 1.8 percent), BSE Capital Goods index (up 1.6 percent) and BSE Realty (up 1.9 percent). Stock market analysts are expecting that with good monsoon spread, the central bank could undertake a rate cut. 5) With corporate earnings season kickstarting later in the week, analysts are betting big on information technology companies to post better numbers. Infosys and TCS will report their numbers this week, while another top private sector conglomerate Reliance Industries, too, will announce its earnings numbers. 6) Buoyed by strong stock market sentiment, rupee also traded higher and appreciated by 29 paise at 67.07 against the US dollar as exporters and banks stepped up selling of the American currency.