Sensex zooms to 6-wk high; up 382pts on Fed comments,strong Re

Tracking strong global cues, the BSE benchmark Sensex today shot up by a whopping 382 points to close at near six-week highs led by a rally in bluechips, buoyed by US Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke's comments on continuing monetary stimulus.

The 30-share index started the day on a high note at 19,584.38 and kept improving further to close the day higher by 381.94 points, or 1.98 per cent, at 19,676.06. This is the Sensex's highest closing since 19,760.30 on May 31 and the biggest single-day gain since June 28.

This led to investors becoming richer by Rs 1 lakh crore today as total market capitalisation of BSE rose to Rs 64,90,805.42 crore.

The index had closed higher by 145.36 points yesterday.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty gained 118.40 points, or 2.04 per cent, to close at 5,935.10. Also, SX40 index, the flagship index of MCX-SX, closed 211.03 points, or 1.83 per cent higher at 11,744.81.

Brokers said the trading sentiment bolstered after Bernanke last night signalled that the monetary stimulus would continue for some time boosting the prospect of the flow of funds to emerging markets.

The rupee strengthening for the third day against the US dollar to 59.42 intra-day, amid an overall firming global trend also pepped up the sentiment.

Cautious investors indulged in picking fundamentally strong stocks ahead of earnings season beginning tomorrow with Infosys coming out first quarter results.

Out of the 30 BSE index components, 27 stocks closed with gains led by Sterlite Industries rising 4.78 per cent to Rs 87.70. Other major gainers were HDFC Bank (3.32 per cent), ITC (2.17 per cent) and HDFC (2.86 per cent).

Sectorwise, the metal sector index gained the most by rising 3 per cent to 7,734.18, followed by bank index by 2.48 per cent to 13,302.84.