Indian stock markets started higher on Thursday with BSE Sensex rising more than 100 points as blue-chip shares of India’s second-largest IT company Infosys and country’s largest housing financier HDFC contributed considerably to the upsurge. In the early morning trades, the INR recoiled back from the 18-month lows against US dollar. Among the constituents of BSE Sensex, Tata Group’s automaker, Tata Motors was the biggest loser after company’s net profit for the quarter ended 31 March halved. Shares of Tata Motors shed 7.66% to a day’s bottom of Rs 285.55 on BSE on Thursday.
The sectoral indices of NSE were trading mixed with Nifty Auto being the biggest laggards and Nifty IT being the top gainer, respectively due to the movement in heavyweight components such as Tata Motors, Infosys and TCS. BSE Sensex made a high of 34,504.97, up by 160.06 points while NSE Nifty surged 40 points to a day’s top of 10,470.35 on Thursday.
The rupee added back 12 paise at 68.3 against the US dollar on Thursday at the interbank foreign exchange market.
The minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s meeting yesterday appeared to have reassured investors that the central bank will not be too aggressive with raising interest rates, PTI reported citing unidentified forex dealers. Earlier yesterday, the rupee saw a massive plunge against the US dollar at the forex market. On Wednesday, the rupee lost as much as 38 paise to hit a nearly 18-month low of 68.42 apiece US dollar following ballooning of crude oil prices.
US stocks ended with small gains on Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting suggested higher inflation may not result in faster interest rate hikes, Reuters said in a report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 52.4 points, or 0.21 percent, to 24,886.81, the S&P 500 gained 8.85 points, or 0.32 percent, to 2,733.29 and the Nasdaq Composite added 47.50 points, or 0.64 percent, to 7,425.96. As per Federal Reserve’s minutes mentioned in a Reuters report, most of the Federal Reserve policymakers thought it likely another rate increase would be warranted “soon” if the US economic outlook remains intact, while many participants saw little evidence of general overheating of the labor market.
