Sensex rises 190 pts to rise past 27,300 as monsoon concerns ease

The new-found buoyancy in local share markets in the last few trading sessions extended in early Friday trade, with the benchmark Sensex topping the 27,300-mark to touch a high of 27,305, up 189 points, amid all-round buying support. Worries of higher inflation have tapered off in recent days following reports that the critical monsoon rainfall has been fast advancing in several parts of the country, thus providing some relief to markets which had faced series of negative news in recent weeks from weak monsoon prospects and earnings slowdown to rising inflation probability and possible fed rate hike triggering foreign fund outflows from the domestic equities. Besides positive domestic indicators, overnight surge in US markets and consequent upmove in other key Asian indices boosted local market sentiment. While Dow Jones edged past 18,000-mark to end 1 percent higher, tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.3 percent at close. In the Asian pack, Japanese Nikkei was up 0.8 percent. [caption id=“attachment_2299806” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Reuters[/caption] At 10.15 am, 30-share S&P BSE Sensex was at 27,305.66, up 189.83 points or 0.8 percent from previous close. Market breadth was firm with 1,167 stocks advancing against 608 declines on the BSE. The broader 50-share CNX Nifty was at 8,224.10, up 49.50 points or 0.6 percent. Among the strong performers in the Sensex pack, Hindalco jumped 2.2 percent to Rs 122.80, HDFC rose 1.7 percent to Rs 1,230.90, Bharti Airtel gained 1.2 percent to Rs 431.75 and Reliance Industries was up 1.1 percent at Rs 990.50. RIL stock has made a strong comeback in recent sessions, with today’s upmove so far taking the tally to sixth straight trading session of gains. Since April, the stock has appreciated over 20 percent. Oil & gas stocks continued to attract buying support. Shares of IOC rose 1.8 percent to Rs 381.30, ONGC gained 1.4 percent to Rs 316.95, HPCL was up 1.2 percent at Rs 723 and BPCL moved up 1.1 percent to Rs 842.50. (Disclosure: Firstpost is part of Network18 Media & Investment Limited which is owned by Reliance Industries Limited.)