Sensex ends 693 points higher, Nifty settles at 7,801; IT, Pharma stocks rally

25/03/2020

MUMBAI: The benchmark equity indices on BSE and National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended with over 2.5 per cent gains on Tuesday tracking a rise in the global markets which climbed as the Fed offered to buy unlimited amounts of assets to steady markets and expanded its mandate to corporate and muni bonds.
The S&P BSE Sensex rose 692.79 points (2.67 per cent) to end at 26,674.03, while the Nifty 50 climbed 190.80 points (2.51 per cent) to settle at 7,801.05. During the intraday, Sensex had risen as much as 1,481.63 points ( 5.70 per cent) to 27,462.87, while the Nifty scaled 426.70 points (5.61 per cent) to 8,036.95.
21 out of 30 stocks of the Sensex ended in the positive zone on Tuesday. Infosys, Bajaj Finance, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Maruti Suzuki India, HCL Technologies and Reliance Industries (RIL) were the top gainers of the day while Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), IndusInd Bank and ITC were the top losers.
Among the sectoral indices on NSE, the Nifty IT was trading over 6 per cent higher led by gains in Infosys, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tech Mahindra. Apart from the IT index, the Nifty Pharma index too was up over 5.5 per cent in the afternoon deals led by Sun Pharma.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index 304.10 points (3.13 per cent) at 10,015.54, while S&P BSE SmallCap was at 8,975.53, up 102.70 points (1.16 per cent).
The rupee continued to trade on a firm note during the afternoon trade on Tuesday. Having already risen to 75.9337 against the US dollar in the morning, the unit was hovering at 76.17 level during the afternoon session. The domestic currency had settled at 76.2937 against the greenback on Monday, according to Bloomberg data.
In the global markets, Asian stocks rebounded sharply on Tuesday as the US Federal Reserve’s promise of bottomless dollar funding eased painful strains in financial markets, even if it could not soften the immediate economic hit of the coronavirus.
While Wall Street seemed unimpressed, investors in Asia were encouraged enough to lift E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 by 3 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei 6.2 per cent. If sustained it would be the biggest daily rise for the Nikkei since late 2016.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan jumped 4.2 per cent, to more than halve Monday’s drop. Shanghai blue chips gained 2.7 per cent.
Europe also looked a shade brighter as EUROSTOXXX 50 futures climbed 3.3% and FTSE futures 3.1 per cent.
In its latest drastic step, the Fed offered to buy unlimited amounts of assets to steady markets and expanded its mandate to corporate and muni bonds.
The numbers were certainly large, with analysts estimating the package could make $4 trillion or more in loans to non-financial firms.

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