A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Thursday closed in green for the first time in five trading sessions, gaining over 400 points or two percent, even as the rupee fell to a new record low and concerns over the US stimulus programme grew.

 

 

 The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 17,896.84 points, ended the day's trade at 18,312.94 points, up 407.03 points or 2.27 percent from the previous day's close at 17,905.91 points.

 

 The Sensex touched a high of 18,349.82 points and a low of 17,759.59 during the day. The gains came a day after it closed below 18,000- mark at 17,905.91 points– the lowest in 11 months.

 

 The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed the day's trade 105.90 points or two percent up at 5,408.45 points.

 

 "A deep oversold Indian equities and uptick in the European bourses provided the uplift to Indian stocks, which has clocked gains of two percent on the broad indices," said Anindya Banerjee, analyst, Kotak Securities. 

 

 "Expectation that government could lift ban on mining propped the banking shares upward. The weakness in the rupee, which touched a fresh life time low against the 65.56 did not have much impact on the equity markets, beyond intra-day volatility."

 

 The turnaround in the markets came despite rupee breaching the psychological resistance level of 65 against a dollar. This was the new record low for the rupee, and a consecutive sixth straight fall in a row session, after the US Federal Reserve hinted it would start scaling back stimulus as early as next month.

 

 The partially-convertible rupee slumped by 2.2 percent to hit a new record low of 65.56 against a dollar at the inter-bank foreign exchange market here, surpassing its previous record low of 64.54 touched Wednesday. The rupee, however, recovered to 64.55 to a dollar.

 

 Almost all the stocks, except realty sector, closed in green. Healthy buying was observed in metal, oil and gas, healthcare, automobile, information technology (IT) and public sector undertakings (PSUs).

 

 The S&P BSE metal index gained  by 588.27 points followed by oil and gas index which increased by 277.63 points, healthcare index rose by 221.44 points, automobile index gained by 196.76 points, IT index went up by 184.94 points, automobile index was down 196.76 points and PSU index closed 149.43 points higher. 

 

 However, BSE realty index was up 8.62 points.

 

 The major Sensex gainers were: Hindalco Inds, up 10.93 percent at Rs.103.55; Sterlite Inds, up 10.42 percent at Rs.87.45, Tata Steel, up 10.22 percent at Rs.273.30, ONGC, up 7.28 percent at Rs.268.95 and Bharti Airtel, up 4.97 percent at Rs.313.45.

 

 The main losers were: HDFC, down 1.01 percent at Rs.739.20, and HDFC Bank, down 0.26 percent at Rs.592.10.

 

 Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.44 percent down, while China's Shanghai Composite Index was higher by 0.36 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.28 percent. 

 

 In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.89 percent up, while Germany's DAX Index was higher 1.07 percent. The French CAC 40 Index gained by 1.01 percent. 

 

 –Indo-Asian News Service