Mumbai: The benchmark Sensex on Thursday snapped a three-day losing trend as it rebounded by 120 points and Nifty firmed up by about 27 points. The market touched new life-high on strong buying mainly in FMCG and banking shares, amid strong overseas cues on talk of global monetary stimulus.
Shares of ITC, which carries the biggest weight in 30-share Sensex, rose by 5.44 % on hopes that a proposal to ban sale of loose cigarettes will be put on hold.
The rise in ITC Â neutralised the effect of the fall in bluechips like Infosys, RIL, L&T, Bharti Airtel, M&M and Hindalco, traders said, adding that rise in HDFC Bank, HDFC, SBI, Cipla and Sesa Sterlite helped the Sensex cement gains.
“Focus is on ECB policy meet….ITC lifted the index on anticipation government will put hold on ban of sale of loose cigarettes. Also, hopes of further easing by China’s PBOC kept sentiment upbeat in Asian equity markets,” said Kiran Kumar Kavikondala, Director and CEO, WealthRays Securities.
Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 391.07 crore yesterday as per provisional data.
BSE Sensex resumed higher at 28,616.93 and shot up further to a high 28,808.78 on initial strong buying. It, however, declined afterwards to 28,448.95 before ending at 28,562.82, a gain of 120.11 points or 0.42 %.
It had lost 251.28 points, or 0.88 %, in the previous three sessions.
The CNX 50-share Nifty today rose by 26.75 points, or 0.31 %, to close at 8,564.40 after hitting a historic high of 8,626.95 during the early trade. It bettered its lifetime high of 8,623 hit on December 1.
Besides global stimulus talk, Asian stock markets tracked fresh signs of resilience in the US economy. The Shanghai Composite index jumped by 4.31 % while other indices like Singapore, Hong kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea ended higher by gaining 0.04 % to 1.72 %.