Backed by fresh buying from investors and foreign institutional investors (FII), the benchmark Sensex gained 257.02 points to 20,791.93. The broader index Nifty also rose by 84.25 points to 6,176.10 as markets saw a broad-based buying, led by bank stocks.
In the last five sessions, the Sensex has gained 574.54 points to clock its first gain after three successive weeks of declines. The index fell 373 points this month, after a record close of 21,239.36 on November 3. As per experts, fresh buying was seen in banking stocks as investors and institutions are expecting economic growth to pick up and also that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) could soon raise the amount banks can borrow from its liquidity adjustment facility (lAF) or the term repo facilities by relaxing the cap on borrowing up to 0.5% of deposits.
While markets ended the month on a positive note, rupee fell for the second day, dropping three paise to close at Rs 62.44 per dollar. Forex experts said that the demand for the US currency from oil refiners added pressure on the domestic currency.
“The surging Indian stock market and the flat dollar index didn’t provide help to the falling rupee,” said Abhishek Goenka, CEO of India Forex Advisors. “Dollar demand is seen coming back to the markets.” The rupee advanced for the second straight week, adding a total of 67 paise. However, the local currency fell 94 paise in November, the first monthly drop in three.
Sectorally, rally was lead by bank index which rose by 2.21 per cent followed by public sector, capital goods and metal indices which jumped by 1.88 per cent, 1.79 per cent and 1.76 per cent respectively. All the 13 sectoral indices trading on BSE ended the week with gains. FIIs remained net buyers in November and as they invested Rs 745.16 crore in equities on Friday, as per provisional data provided by the stock exchanges. The market breadth turned positive as 1,461 shares gained, 1,032 fell and 179 ruled steady. Total turnover fell to Rs 2,061.58 crore from Rs 2,243.60 crore yesterday.
After stock markets closed, country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was announced which stood at 4.8 per cent in July-September compared with 4.4 per cent in April-June. Also, the fiscal deficit in the first seven months (Apr-Oct) of FY14 reached 84.4 per cent of the full-year budget target compared with 71.6 per cent last year.