Sensex surges 156 points as investors bullish ahead of key corporate earnings; rupee up 11 paise

Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex gained over 156 points in early trade today as investors widened their positions ahead of quarterly earnings from some blue-chip companies amid positive Asian cues. Moreover, continuous buying by domestic financial institutions also supported trading sentiment. The 30-share index gathered 156.24 points, or 0.48 percent, to 32,662.96 with all the sectoral indices led by oil & gas, realty, PSU and metal trading higher. The gauge had rallied 116.76 points in the previous session. The NSE index Nifty too climbed 34.25 points, or 0.33 percent, to trade above the 10,200-mark at 10,219.10. Brokers said fresh spell of buying by investors ahead of quarterly earnings from Infosys and a few other bluechip companies later in the day and a firming trend at other Asian bourses buoyed trading sentiment here. Major gainers were ONGC, NTPC, Tata Steel, Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank, Asian Paint, ICICI Bank, Coal India, SBI, Maruti Suzuki, Wipro and Power Grid, rising up to 2.42 percent. [caption id=“attachment_2650198” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 307.84 crore in yesterday’s trade, as per provisional data issued by the stock exchanges. Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.12 percent and Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.17 percent, while Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.09 percent in early trade today. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, shed 0.23 percent in yesterday. Early gains in domestic stocks influenced the rupee uptrend, with the domestic currency strengthening 11 paise to 64.91 against the dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange on increased selling of the US currency by exporters and banks. Forex dealers said weakness in the dollar against a few currencies overseas as attention turned to who would be the next head of the US central bank, gave some support to the rupee. Yesterday, the rupee had ended marginally higher by 2 paise at 65.02 a dollar on fresh selling of the American currency by banks and exporters coupled with firm local equities.