Foreign portfolio investors regained their appetite for equities that led to the domestic stock markets outperforming their overseas peers and the rupee posting its biggest gain in a year. Benchmark indices clocked their best single-day gain in more than three months as they surged over 2.5 per cent on strong buying in banking and IT stocks.
The Sensex zoomed 1564.45 points or 2.70 per cent to settle at more than a one-week high of 59537.07 after spurting 1627.16 points or 2.80 per cent to a day’s high of 59599.78. The broader NSE Nifty jumped 446.40 points or 2.58 per cent to close at 17759.30 as all the 50 components of the index advanced.
The rally in equities led to investor wealth rising over Rs 5.68 lakh crore. At the forex markets, the rupee jumped 51 paise to close at 79.45 against the dollar. Provisional data from the stock exchanges showed FPIs made net purchases to the tune of Rs 4,200 crore on Tuesday.
In August they bought shares worth Rs 51,000 crore and bonds amounting to Rs 3,800 crore. After an 861-point fall in the previous session, Tuesday brought good tidings to investors despite mixed global cues with key indices overseas either posting marginal gains or remaining in the red. Market mavens said that one of the reasons for optimism was that the domestic economy will not be as badly hit as some of the others and that inflation would soften going ahead due to a fall in commodity prices.
``The equity indexes recovered significantly due to aggressive buying that emerged against the sharp fall in the markets the previous day. The fact that growth in India would be still relatively higher, and that inflation may gradually moderate over time, have infused greater confidence in the minds of the market participants,’’ Joseph Thomas, head of research, Emkay Wealth Management, said. Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services, pointed out the rebound indicated the domestic economy’s resilience in comparison to its global peers.
Rupee rebound
Forex circles said that heavy inflows from FPIs and softness in the Dollar Index (DXY) supported the currency on Tuesday. On Monday, the domestic currency had fallen below the 80 levels to hit a new record intra-day low of 80.15, but intervention from the RBI saw the unit closing with small losses at 79.96. The DXY which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies was trading at 108.60 against the previous close of 108.83.
Adani 3rd richest
Gautam Adani is now the world’s third richest person, thanks to an unrelenting rally in Adani group stocks. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adani with a total net worth of $137 billion comes just after Elon Musk of Tesla ($251 billion) and Jeff Bezos of Amazon whose net worth stands at $153 billion.
