Sensex soars 365 pts in early trade as US Fed holds rates

Mumbai, Sep 22 (PTI) The BSE benchmark Sensex surged by365 points and the NSE Nifty regained the 8,800-mark in earlytrade today, reversing the two-session falling trend onpositive cues from other Asian markets as the US FederalReserve kept rates unchanged. Strong Inflows from overseas investors andacross-the-board buying by the investors also helped marketsentiments. The 30-share barometer Sensex was quoting sharply higherby 364.80 points, or 1.27 per cent at 28,871.92 in early tradewith all the sectoral indices led by banking, metal and autowere trading in the positive zone, gaining by up to 1.99 percent. The Sensex had lost 127.08 points in the previous twosessions. Big gainers that supported the early rally at the indicesincluded ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, SBI, Hero MotoCorp, AxisBank, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC Ltd, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, GAIL,ONGC and RIL. The NSE Nifty too reclaimed the crucial 8,800-mark byclimbing 108.65 points or 1.24 per cent to trade at 8,885.80. Brokers said a flurry of buying by investors as well asforeign funds, tracking a firming trend in other Asian marketsas investors cheered the Federal Reserve’s decision not tolift interest rates, buoyed trading sentiments here. The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark interest rateunchanged for the sixth straight meeting yesterday, saying itneeds to see more signs of strength in the US economy. Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.54per cent, while Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.77 per centin their early deals. Japanese financial markets are closedfor a national holiday. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.90 per centhigher in yesterday’s trade. PTI SUN KPSJM