More stimulus? Indian stocks soar on hopes of more govt aid
Markets roared back to life as speculation of a major stimulus package from the government boosted sentiment in equity markets.
On the last trading day before the Easter holiday, the domestic equity market rebounded sharply from the opening losses and ended in the green today as investors were buoyed by hopes of a second stimulus package worth about Rs 1 lakh crore soon to mitigate the economic hit from the pandemic.
The Sensex surged 1,266 points or 4.23 per cent to settle at 31,160 amid further buying interest in index heavyweights such as HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries (RIL), and Maruti. NSE’s Nifty was up 363.15 points or 4.15 percent at 9,111.90 at close.
On a weekly basis, both indexes added around 13 per cent.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index closed over 3.63 per cent higher at 11,374 and the S&P BSE SmallCap index advanced over 3 per cent to 10,294.
On the sectoral front, the auto index jumped over 10.5 per cent followed by bank, metal, pharma, infra and energy. BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up over 3 per cent each.
Drug major Sun Pharma recovered the market-capitalisation of Rs 1 trillion after a sharp rally in its stock price. The stock closed at Rs 455.20 on the BSE, up over 4 per cent, while Cipla shares climbed 15% to Rs 589.95 on BSE
Fear index or volatility index India VIX declined over 5 per cent to 49.56 levels.
Asian stocks were on the upswing today as investors once again expressed hope that the novel coronavirus pandemic was nearing its peak and that governments will roll out additional stimulus measures. Oil futures, meanwhile, are surging ahead of a crucial meeting between Russia and OPEC to discuss output cuts.
South Korea’s Kospi was up 1.6 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.3 per cent. The Shanghai Composite rose just 0.4%, while SGX Nifty added 1.54 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.4 per cent lower as the country faces an increasing number of confirmed COVID-19 infections.
The rising numbers in Asia mirrored yesterday’s closing numbers on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 all gaining 3.4 per cent, while the Nasdaq was up 2.6 per cent. This came after the US President tweeted that New York is starting to flatten its curve of number of coronavirus cases.
Brent crude futures rose 3.7 per cent, or $1.22, ro $34.06 a barrel as of 0902 GMT after touching a high of $34.08 early in the session.
United States crude futures were up 4.8 per cent, or $1.2, at $26.29 a barrel, after hitting a session high of $26.67 a barrel.
The OPEC+ meeting is expected to be more successful than their gathering last month, where they failed to agree to extend supply cuts and triggered a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.