Sensex Today: Indian benchmarks – BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty – ended the week’s first trading session on a higher note. Sensex added as much as 612 points or 0.75 per cent to settle at 81,698.11 on Monday. Mirroring Sensex, Nifty50 too ended 187.46 points or 0.76 per cent higher at 25,010.60.
Monday ended in favour of the bulls, as 33 out of 50 listed stocks on Nifty50 ended higher with gains led by HCL Tech, Hindalco, NTPC, ONGC, and Bajaj Finserv of up to 4.24 per cent.
Similarly, among the 30 constituents of Sensex, 21 stocks ended higher with gains led by HCL Tech, NTPC, and Bajaj Finserv of up to 4 per cent.
The broader indices too ended higher on Monday with gains led by the Nifty Midcap 100 of 0.64 per cent. Among the sectors, IT, Metal, Realty, and OMCs led the gains of up to 2.16 per cent.
The Fed chief Powell’s clear message of the beginning of the rate cutting cycle will impart further resilience to the ongoing global rally in stock markets. Deviating from his usual cautious messaging, this time Powell unambiguously stated that – the time has come for policy to adjust and that the direction of travel is clear. This will act as sort of a -Powell put- similar to the famous -Greenspan put- that supported US equity markets during the Greenspan era, said Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.
Global Cues
Asian shares crept cautiously higher, while the dollar and bond yields were on the wane ahead of inflation data that investors hope will pave the way for rate cuts in the United States and Europe.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.4 per cent, after rising 1.1 per cent last week, while South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.3 per cent.
Japan’s Nikkei eased 0.7 per cent as a stronger yen pressured exporter stocks.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up by 0.61 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up by 0.89 per cent at 17,768 levels.
After Jerome Powell’s dovis comments on Friday, the US markets had closed sharply higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average had risen 1.14 per cent, to 41,175.08, the S&P 500 had gained 1.15 per cent, to 5,634.61 and the Nasdaq Composite had added 1.47 per cent, to 17,877.79.
