Ahead of the much awaited lok Sabha election results, the rupee rose by 39 paise on Thursday to close at a nearly 10-month high of Rs 59.29 per dollar following sustained selling of the American currency by exporters and continued capital inflows. The benchmark Sensex also rose by 90.48 points and ended at a new closing high of Rs 23,905.60.
Rupee started the session strong at Rs 59.50 per dollar but immediately touched an intraday low of Rs 59.62 per dollar. later, it bounced back to a high of Rs 59.10 per dollar. It finally settled at Rs 59.29 per dollar, level not seen since July 26, 2013 when it had closed at Rs 59.04 per dollar."Amid optimism over the election results and consistent gains in the stock markets, rupee is leading the gains among emerging Asian currencies," said Abhishek Goenka, CEO, India Forex Advisors.
Meanwhile, Indian stock markets continued to rise with both Sensex and Nifty logging fresh closing highs on fag-end buying ahead of the lok Sabha poll outcome. A fall in April wholesale inflation also added support to the index.late buying helped Sensex rebound to a new closing peak of 23,905.60, showing a recovery of 90.48 points. On Wednesday, it had declined 56.11 points from its previous closing peak of 23,871.23. The broader index, Nifty also surged by 14.40 points to a new closing high of 7,123.15.
Bajaj Auto was top loser from the Sensex pack with a fall of 4.28 per cent after company reported weak Q4 results. Meanwhile, Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 934.94 crore on Thursday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.To ring fence the capital market from possible manipulations against the backdrop of election results tomorrow, Sebi as well as bourses and other market entities have prepared an elaborate vigil mechanism.
Besides, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that RBI will infuse liquidity tomorrow, if needed. RBI has discussed contingency plans with Finance Ministry and Sebi to deal with market volatility tomorrow, he added.17 scrips out the 30-share Sensex pack ended higher while others ended lower. Major gainers included Tata Power, NTPC, ONGC and GAIl which surged by 3.07 per cent, 2.95 per cent, 2.56 per cent and 2.16 per cent respectively. On the other hand, Hindalco dropped the most by 1.98 per cent, followed by Sesa Sterlite, Wipro and Dr Reddy's which fell by 1.88 per cent, 1.50 per cent and 1.46 per cent.
Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices, Consumer Durables rose the most by 1.52 per cent, followed by power and oil & gas which gained by 0.97 per cent and 0.95 per cent respectively while real estate fell by 1.11 per cent and capital goods slipped 0.90 per cent.Reflecting heavy profit-selling in second-line stocks, the total market breadth turned negative as 1,743 stocks finished in red while 1,156 stocks ended with gains. The total turnover dropped to Rs 3,223.00 crore from Rs 3,547.55 crore on Wednesday.