The benchmark BSE Sensex rose by almost 350 points in early trade today on emergence of buying by funds and retail investors amid a firming trend in global markets after the US Federal Reserve took a dovish stance on monetary policy.

Besides, strengthening of the rupee against the US dollar supported the recovery.

The benchmark BSE Sensex rose over 70 points in early trade today on the back of gains in stocks of metal, IT, healthcare, technology and FMCG sectors amid a mixed trend in other Asian markets ahead of the outcome of the US Federal Reserve’s policy meet.

The 30-share barometer, which rose 298.67 points in the previous session, gained 70.59 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 28,806.97 in early trade.

In line with an overall weak trend in equities, the combined market valuation of top nine Sensex companies dropped sharply by Rs 83,209 crore last week, with IT major TCS taking the biggest hit.

Barring Coal India, the rest of nine companies suffered erosion in their market capitalisation (m-cap) for the week ended Friday (March 13, 2015).

BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty closed more than 1% lower on Friday as the retail inflation data dampened hopes of a rate-cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in April and fear of a US Fed rate-hike in June put emerging market currencies under pressure.

“There are no key triggers for the markets, currently. While markets opened higher amid optimism from the passage of the insurance bill in the Rajya Sabha, it doesn’t come across as a great surprise as it was a long-pending issue.

Stock markets fell for the second straight session with the benchmark Sensex today sliding 134.91 points to one-month low of 28,709.87 as investors sold realty, power and oil&gas shares amid lingering worries over an earlier-than-expected hike in US interest rates.

After yesterday's over 604-point crash, the 30-share BSE Sensex opened in positive terrain but soon succumbed to selling pressure. It touched day's low of 28,584.49.

Indian markets today logged their biggest drop in 2 months with BSE benchmark Sensex tanking 604 points to close below 29,000 mark and the Nifty index slipped 181 points to fall below 8,800 level on fears that an earlier-than-expected rate hike by US will hit fund inflows.

It was a sea of red in domestic markets today. Nearly 1900 shares on the BSE fell while less than 1,000 managed to rise.

RBI's surprise rate cut, much before its next month's meeting, means good news for infra, realty as well as high-debt companies.

Banks had not cut their base rates after the RBI cut the repo rate by 25 basis points on Jan 15. The gains, however, which typically come with a lag should start reflecting soon.

India’s broader NSE Nifty index rose to a record high on Tuesday led by gains in Reliance Industries after CLSA said the conglomerate could report a record profit for the fourth quarter, while hopes of higher weightage in the MSCI index also helped.

The 50-share index rose as much as 0.45 pct to 8,996.80, surpassing its previous record high of 8,996.60 hit on Jan. 30.

The benchmark BSE Sensex crashed 104 points after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s Union Budget 2015. Even the broader NSE Nifty dropped few points.

At 1:50 pm, the BSE Sensex was trading at 28975.57 down -0.84 per cent. The Nifty drops -0.59 per cent to 8783.80.

The country’s biggest bourse, the National Stock Exchange (NSE), plans an international exchange at Gujarat’s ‘GIFT City’, the country's first proposed international financial services centre.

The exchange signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Thursday with the GIFT City project developers in Ahmedabad, in the presence of Gujarat’s finance minister, Saurabh Patel. NSE’s rival, BSE Ltd, had signed a similar undertaking with the Gujarat government last month.

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