Sensex opens strong in early trade, rupee strengthens against dollar
New Delhi: After its record fall on Monday, the Sensex opened strong this morning and soared 383 points within minutes but a sharp bout of volatility soon engulfed the markets in the morning trade. In a see-saw trade, the index slipped into the negative territory but recovered and was up 120 points at 25,862 points at 0945 hrs. At the same time, the Nifty of the National Stock Exchange rose by 38.60 points to 7,847.60 after dipping to a low of 7,801 in early trade. The Sensex had opened strong by 383 points and the Nifty recaptured 7,900 level in early trade on across the sector value-buying by participants even as Chinese markets continued to slide.
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All the sectoral indices led by realty, metal and consumer durable led the recovery. Brokers said emergence of buying at prevailing lower levels in bluechips coupled with covering-up of short positions by speculators, helped key indices to trade in the positive zone. Besides, a recovery at other Asian markets influenced sentiments here, they said. The Sensex had crashed by 1,624.51 points — its biggest single-day fall. Meanwhile, the rupee recovered by 26 paise to 66.39 against the dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange in early trade today on fresh selling of the US currency by banks and exporters.
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Dealers said fresh selling of the US currency by exporters and banks, and weakening of dollar overseas supported the domestic currency. Gains in stock markets also helped rupee strengthen against the dollar, they added.
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The rupee had tumbled sharply by 82 paise, its biggest single day fall this year, to settle at 66.65 against the dollar yesterday as global meltdown fears remained unabated. The widespread panic sell-off in Chinese equities predominantly tipped emerging market currencies into turmoil even as the US dollar weakened overseas.
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Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 1.36 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei was up by 1.10 per cent in early trade. However, Shanghai Composite index tumbled 4.49 per cent. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 3.57 per cent lower in Monday’s trade.
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