Easing crude oil prices and a recovering rupee brought some relief to investors on Wednesday with the benchmark Sensex closing with gains of almost 83 points .
The turnaround came as global equities and oil markets stabilised after Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said more than half of the country’s crude oil production, hit by a drone attack over the weekend, has been recovered. He further disclosed that production capacity at its targeted plants would be fully restored by the end of the month.
This brought some relief to the markets, which had turned apprehensive over the spike in crude oil prices following the attack.
In the last two sessions, the Sensex had cumulatively fallen over 900 points as market participants feared that rising crude oil prices will not only impact India’s current account deficit but also lead to higher inflation at a time the economy is struggling to come out of a slowdown.
While Brent crude futures fell 0.95 per cent to $63.94 per barrel in intra-day trade, it led to the shares of oil marketing companies rising up to 3.6 per cent. Shares of BPCL rose 3.65 per cent, HPCL finished higher at 3.64 per cent and Indian Oil Corporation was up 2.68 per cent on the BSE.
At the forex markets, the rupee finished at 71.24 on the news of lower crude oil prices. The unit opened at 71.47 and rose to an intra-day high of 71.17. It later ended at 71.24, higher by 54 paise over its previous close of 71.78.
The 30-share Sensex which opened in the green at 36621.88, rose to an intra-day high of 36712.99 and ended at 36563.88— a gain of 82.79 points or 0.23 per cent. The broader NSE Nifty rose 23.05 points, or 0.21 per cent, to settle at 10840.65.
Top gainers in the Sensex pack included Tata Steel, Vedanta, SBI, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, M&M, NTPC and PowerGrid, rising up to 3.95 per cent.
On the other hand, ONGC, Yes Bank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Sun Pharma and Maruti tumbled up to 2.08 per cent.
The markets are now awaiting cues from the policy meeting of the Federal Reserve.
