Dalal Street cheers Wall Street’s record closing: Sensex gains nearly 250 points, rupee recovers

Indian stock markets opened higher on Thursday following the record closing in US markets on Wednesday along with the optimism on the outcome of GST council meeting starting today and ongoing Q2 earnings season. Among the biggies, Tata Motors, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Aurobindo Pharma are slated to announce their second-quarter earnings today. BSE Sensex gained 157.81 to open at 33,376.62 points while NSE Nifty added about 55.5 points to start at 10,358.65 points.

The benchmark Sensex jumped 244.99 points to hit a day’s high of 33,463.8 while the broader Nifty rose as much as 65.3 points to mark the day’s high at 10,368.45. Other major companies which are also scheduled to announce Q2 earnings today include , Allcargo Logistics, Amara Raja Batteries, Aptech, Bajaj Electricals, Capacit’e Infraprojects, CG Power, Dr Lal Path Labs, Granules India, India Cements, Indraprastha Gas, JSPL, NHPC, Page Industries, PTC India, SRF, Sail and V-Mart Retail.

Shares of HUL, SBI, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, and NTPC advanced up to 2.5% and were the major gainers on Sensex while HDFC, Power Grid Corporation and Coal India lost up to 1.2%. The stocks of heavyweight companies such as RIL, SBI, HUL, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors and Infosys contributed the most to the gains in Sensex. Collectively these six stocks alone added about 129 points to the index while a slump in HDFC washed off as much as 36 points.

The rupee advanced by 11 paise to 64.85 against the US dollar at the interbank foreign exchange market on Thursday. Among the regional markets, Japan’s stock benchmark Nikkei index surged Thursday to hit a 26 year high on the yen’s weakness and healthy corporate earnings.

Wall Street closed at a record high on Wednesday as Apple’s market capitalization climbed above the $900 billion mark and video game makers rallied, Reuters reported. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 6.13 points, or 0.03 percent, to 23,563.36, the S&P 500 gained 3.73 points, or 0.14 percent, to 2,594.37 and the Nasdaq Composite added 21.34 points, or 0.32 percent, to 6,789.12.

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National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE)