Sensex rallies over 250 points; metal stocks shine

Benchmark indices continued to gain in the after-noon trade tracking global markets cues on upbeat economic data and rise in oil prices as investors were optimistic ahead of corporate earnings and Union Budget 2017.

Sensex hit its highest in nearly two months, while the broader NSE Nifty hit a near one-month high in today’s session led by gains in metal, oil & gas, banking and auto sectors.

At 2:07 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 26,895, up 263 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 8,275, up 84 points.

Broader market outperformed the headline indices with BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap gaining 1.08% and 0.94% respectively.

Asian stocks climbed for an eighth consecutive day on Thursday, buoyed by further gains on Wall Street and an overnight bounce in oil prices that bolstered energy and resource shares.

Also underpinning the cautious streak of optimism has been a steady stream of upbeat factory and service sector surveys out of the U.S., Europe and Asia this week, prompting some banks to raise their global growth forecasts for 2017.

Back home, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, ONGC and ICICI Bank are top gainers while TCS and M&M are the biggest laggards in the Sensex. Only three stocks in BSE Sensex were trading in red during the afternoon trade.

On NSE, all except IT index were trading in positive. A bill backing key changes in the H1-B programme that allows skilled workers from countries like India to fill high-tech jobs in the US has been reintroduced in the US Congress by two lawmakers who claim that it will help crack down on the work visa abuse was the primary reason for the IT shares falling in today’s trade.

Tata Motors was up almost 3% to Rs 500 on the BSE after Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) reported a strong 30% jump in US sales at 12,573 units in December 2016 against 9,638 units a year earlier.

BSE metal index rose over 3% in today’s trade out performing all the other sectoral indices. JSW Steel is the biggest gainer in the sector followed by JSPLm Vedanta and Tata Steel. Nine out of the ten index stocks are trading in green except for Nalco which is trading flat to negative.

Sun Pharma added 2% at intra-day after the pharma major announced successful Phase 3 confirmatory clinical trial results for Seciera for the treatment of dry eye disease.