Mumbai: Market benchmark Sensex rose for the fourth straight by surging 564.60 points to close at one and a half months high of 26,785.55 tracking upbeat Asian and European cues after US jobs data fuelled speculation that the Fed will not raise interest rates any time soon. On the domestic front, Sensex's biggest single day rise in nine months since January 15, was supported by the rupee gaining some muscle against the dollar.
The rally in Indian shares was a part of the smart upmove seen in global stocks triggered by expectations that the US Federal Reserve will delay the first interest rate hike in almost a decade in wake of a lackluster US jobs data. "The odds of a US rate hike during October have lessened due to poor payroll data," said Vinod Nair Head-Fundamental Research at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services. After tracking bullish global cues, the 30-share Sensex scaled the day's high of 26,822.42 and closed 564.60 points or 2.15 per cent higher at 26,785.55, a level last seen on August 21. Sentiment was also upbeat as a number of banks announced a reduction in base rates during the past few days in the wake of a steeper-than-expected 50 basis points cut in the repo rate by the Reserve Bank of India.
Sensex has rallied by 1,168.71 points in four sessions, since the monetary policy review last week. On the day, 50-share NSE Nifty also recorded second biggest rise on the calender year by surging 168.40 points or 2.12 per cent to close at 8,119.30.
Both the indices, Sensex and Nifty, posted their biggest single day gains since January 15. Out of the 30 Sensex stocks, 26 ended with gains while Maruti Suzuki, Dr Reddy's, Lupin and HUL lost. Shares of Tata Motors emerged as the top gainer among the Sensex pack by surging 6.13 per cent on sales data and reports that its Jaguar Land Rover sales surged in the US. Global markets were largely positive, on expectations that Beijing will take steps to accelerate growth and dimmed prospects of a near-term interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve. Indexes from China, Tokyo, Hong Kong, South Korea indexes firmed up in the region 0.76 per cent to 1.62 per cent. While, gains between 2.12 per cent and 3.35 per cent were seen from Europe.
