It is turning out to be early Diwali for Indian stock markets as the rally continued for the third day.
The benchmark Sensex jumped by 130.55 points to its highest closing ever of 21,164.52. During the session, Sensex touched an intraday high of 21,205.44, just shy of 1.33 points from its all time high of 21,206.77 which it made on January 10, 2008. Continuing with the rally, Sensex has surged by nearly 600 points in the last three sessions.
The broader index Nifty also gained 47.45 points and closed at 6,299.15. During the session, Nifty soar past 6,300 mark to an intra-day high of 6,309.05. Nifty made an all-time high of 6,357.10 on January 8, 2008. The combined turnover of the BSE and NSE soared to Rs 5.33 lakh crore, the highest ever for the Indian markets.
Market experts said that late buying helped markets jump towards their record closing as institutes and investors were seen doing heavy short covering before October expiry of the options and derivative contracts. Of all the 13 sectoral indices on BSE, 12 managed to close with gains while healthcare index was the only index which fell. The rally was lead by consumer durables and public sector indices which rose by 2.65 per cent and 2.47 per cent respectively.
Another positive trigger for the markets came from the US as the Federal Reserve said it would wait for more signals that the economy was improving before tapering its $ 85 billion bond-buying every month. Foreign institutional investors (FII) also continued with their buying spree for the 19th consecutive session. As per the provisional data provided by the stock exchanges, FIIs invest a net of Rs 1,875.87 crore on Thursday.
While the stock markets were busy celebrating an early diwali, rupee again came under pressure due to the heavy month- end demand from importers and oil marketing companies. The domestic currency fell 27 paise to Rs 61.50 per dollar while the fall was limited by the heavy inflow of foreign funds in the stocks markets.
The dollar index was also up by 0.26 per cent against major global rivals after the Federal Reserve held its monetary policy steady, in line with expectations. “The rupee was seen weakening after the Fed announced that they will continue with the current pace of QE (quantitative easing) but gave a slight hint that they may taper in the month of December. This fuelled gains in the dollar and made the rupee depreciate,” said Abhishek Goenka, CEO of India Forex Advisors.