NEW DELHI: The government’s decision to start a phased reopening of the economy cheered investors on Dalal Street as they flocked to buy equities in Monday’s session, taking benchmark indices higher. Strong global market mood too helped the sentiment back home.
The Centre set out a three-phase “unlock” plan that will permit reopening of malls, hotels and restaurants, inter-state travel and religious places and also allow unrestricted movement of persons and goods inter and intra-state in the first phase of the reopening.
At the close, BSE flagship Sensex was up 879 points or 2.71 per cent to 33,303 while NSE benchmark Nifty advanced 246 points or 2.57 per cent to 9,826.
“The Nifty played opened with a jubilant gap up above 9,700 and achieved 9,800 in no time. We should now be trading for 9,950-10,000 levels. The new support range for this market would be 9,450-9,500,” said Manish Hathiramani, proprietary index trader and technical analyst, Deen Dayal Investments.
Agencies
In the 30-share pack Sensex, 25 stocks ended in the green. Among bluechips, Bajaj Finance was the biggest gainer, jumping nearly 11 per cent to Rs 2,160 while Titan Company added about 8 per cent. Among other top gainers were Tata Steel, SBI, M&M and HDFC that added 4-7 per cent.
Nifty Smallcap recorded its fifth straight day of gains, jumping 3.21 per cent while Nifty Midcap also scored a fifth consecutive rise in the index, adding 3.10 per cent.
Globally, Asian shares pushed to three-month highs as progress on opening up economies helped offset jitters over riots in US cities and unease over Washington’s power struggle with Beijing.
There was also relief that while President Donald Trump began the process of ending special US treatment for Hong Kong to punish China, he left their trade deal intact.
After a cautious start Asian markets were led higher by China on signs parts of the domestic economy were picking up. Hong Kong managed to rally 3.6 per cent, while Chinese blue chips put on 2.2 per cent.
That helped lift MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan 2.1 per cent to its highest since early March. Japan’s Nikkei added 1.1 per cent to also reach a three-month peak.
E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 recovered to be up 0.1 per cent, having been down 1 per cent in early trade. EUROSTOXX 50 futures firmed 1.4 per cent and FTSE futures 1.2 per cent.
