Hope of the implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST) Bills soon and a sense of squeezing liquidity out of the system in the RBI’s monetary policy on Thursday helped the BSE Sensex hit a record high of 30,007.48 in intra-day trading on Wednesday. However, finally it ended up by 64 points down at 29,974. Besides, Nifty too finished at 9,265.15 points, fuelled by sustained foreign fund inflows as well as positive sentiment of investors in blue-chip firms like RIl and Maruti.
Meanwhile, the rupee staged a stellar comeback after a brief pause and hit 17-month peak of 64.87 by gaining 16 paise against the US dollar on heavy selling of the American currency by banks and exporters. Robust foreign investment inflows and export proceeds continued to give the rupee strong underlying support, despite relatively firm greenback overseas.
Investors are in a wait-and-watch mode ahead of the RBI’s first bi-monthly policy review. The RBI is widely expected to hold rates, but there are hopes of more steps being announced to address growing bad loans and excess liquidity, traders said.