The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex resumed higher by 142 points and touched an intraday high of 15,951.07 points before ending at 15,915.65, a net rise of 124.72 points or 0.79 per cent from its last close, when it crashed by 434 points on global cues.
Significantly, all the sectoral indices ended in the green, with the worst hit sectors in the past two sessions— realty, metals, oil & gas and IT counters— leading the rally.
The National Stock Exchange’s 50-share Nifty also shot up by 38.60 points or 0.82 per cent to finish at 4,757.25 from its previous close, after opening over 42 points.
Domestic equities on Saturday jumped during the 90-minutes special trading session held on the back of a strong intra-day rebound of US stocks late last evening.
US unemployment
The US unemployment rate surprisingly fell to a five-month low in January 2010, data showed on Friday, coupled with speculation that which revved up market sentiments there and percolated to India too.
That apart, Dalal Street derived some consolation from Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan’s statements on the Friday that the Centre might not roll back economic stimulus measures at one-go and efforts will be there in the budget to lower fiscal deficit, observed market analysts.
The country’s two major stock exchanges, National Stock Exchange (NSE) and BSE held a special 90-minute trading session to enable NSE test an upgraded trading system. Consequently, the trading in the cash and futures market began at 11 am and ended at 12:30 pm. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market was strong, with as many as 1,806 shares on BSE advanced as compared with 657 shares that declined, while a total of 56 shares remained unchanged. As far as the Sensex pack, 25 scrips rose and one fell.
DH News Service & PTI