Sensex surges 359 pts on strong global cues, govt's reform annoucement

Riding on the back of a strong global equity markets recovery, key domestic share benchmark indices rose over 1 percent fueled by across-the-board buying support. Despite the lingering uncertainty surrounding the sluggish global economic recovery and overhang of the possible US Fed rate hike next month, local investors seemed enthused by the government’s recent efforts to prop up the sagging sentiment. [caption id=“attachment_2513742” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Announcing a slew of reform initiatives made over the past one week, the government increased FDI limit in several sectors, proposed to offload stake in a PSU entity, extended subsidy scheme for exports and suggested new steps to revive the key infrastructure sector. Moreover, all eyes will be on the Winter Session of Parliament starting next week, as investors would hope the government this time will be able to pass key pending bills such as the GST and Land Acquisition Bill, key for strong economic growth prospects in the long run, said market experts. On Thursday, the 30-share BSE S&P Sensex ended the session at 25,841.92, up 359.40 points, or 1.4 percent from previous close. Intra-day, the index surged 402 points to touch the day’s high of 25,884.52 before trimming some gains towards the fag end. Today’s gains were the best since 5 October, when the Sensex soared 565 points. The broader 50-stock CNX Nifty also ended firm at 7,842.75, up 110.95 points, or 1.4 percent. Market breadth ended firm, with gainers outnumbering losers by nearly 2:1. Of the 2,891 stocks traded, 1,785 stocks advanced, 919 declined and 187 were unchanged on BSE. Among other Asian peers, Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.1 percent, while China’s Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were up 1.4 percent tracking overnight recovery in the US markets. In the October Fed minutes of the meeting, officials signalled the first rate hike in last seven years would come next month in the wake of improving US economy. Leading the upsurge in local markets, shares of Bajaj Auto flared up 3.2 percent to Rs 2,419.70, Vedanta rose 2.8 percent to Rs 91.70, HDFC moved up 2.8 percent to Rs 1,212.55, Infosys gained 2.7 percent to Rs 1,047.30 and Maruti was up 2.6 percent at Rs 4,652.95. Besides large-cap stocks, buying frenzy was also evident in small-rung stocks, with BSE Mid-cap index ending 1.2 percent higher and BSE Small-cap index rising 1.3 percent at close.