Sensex surges nearly 250 points; inches towards 27,900 mark; rupee down

Key equity benchmark indices opened on a buoyant note early Wednesday, with the Sensex inching towards the 27,900-mark as heavy buying was seen in power, banking and software shares. A day after the markets ended with a negative bias, the Sensex opened over 100 points higher and rallied nearly 250 points tracking gains in other key Asian gauges. At 9.55 am, 30-share Sensex was quoted at 27,887.60, up 242.07 points or 0.88 percent. The broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty was up 66.40 points or 0.79 percent at 8,432.05. Market breadth was positive with 1,264 stocks advancing against 430 stocks declining on the BSE. [caption id=“attachment_2253596” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Other broader indices, too, notched up significant gains with the BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices gaining around 1 percent each. Tata Power was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, rising 3.3 percent to Rs 78.35 after the company posted strong earnings in the fourth quarter. For the quarter ended March 2015, the company posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 159.14 crore against a loss of Rs 145.33 crore in the same quarter a year ago, while total income decreased to Rs 8,227.14 crore from Rs 8954.87 crore. Private banking major ICICI Bank rose 1.55 percent to Rs 320.10, Infosys gained 1.52 percent to Rs 2,048.85, HDFC added 1.34 percent to Rs 1,257.75 and TCS was up 1.28 percent at Rs 2,544.05. Among other gainers, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel, M&M and Maruti Suzuki were up over 1 percent each. However, frontline metal stocks exhibited weakness with Tata Steel falling 1.33 percent to Rs 363.25 and Hindalco easing 1 percent to Rs 138.60. On the currency front, the Indian rupee opened lower by 10 paise at 63.77 per dollar versus 63.67 Tuesday. “The rupee is expected to trade higher today amid persistent strength in dollar index on worries that Greece may miss debt repayments next month.Fresh statements from FOMC, related to interest rate hike in the US may provide more cues for the rupee going forward. Range for the day is seen between 63.40-64.05/dollar," said Himanshu Arora of Religare.