Sensex surges 200 pts; logs 6th straight rise on monsoon cheer

Logging its first weekly rise in four weeks, the benchmark BSE Sensex today surged by 200 points to 27,316.17, driven by value-buying in auto and bank stocks as above-normal monsoon so far eased drought fears.

Furthermore, rupee strengthening by 18 paise against dollar also supported the upside.

"India has got better than expected monsoon, CPI numbers and increase in MSP," said Vinod Nair, Head-Fundamental Research of Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
Meanwhile, despite rains, both BSE and the NSE witnessed normal trading.

"BSE volumes were normal today. Markets functioned well despite low attendance in broker offices in Mumbai due to pan-Indian nature of BSE market," an BSE official said.

National Stock Exchange's spokesperson said: "Trading happened normally at NSE today. Volume in some segment was higher than this month's average."
Meanwhile, driven by market rally, the market valuation of listed companies at BSE regained the Rs 100 lakh crore-mark.

Besides, Geojit's Head of Research Alex Mathews said the rise was by driven "selective buying ahead of the F&O expiry helped the market to recover".

Rising for the sixth straight day, the 30-share index opened higher and gathered momentum on continued buying to touch high of 27,404.60.

It gave up some gains at the fag-end on profit-booking, settling higher by 200.34 points or 0.74 per cent higher at 27,316.17.

The 50-share Nifty breached the 8,200-mark by surging 50.35 points or 0.62 per cent to close at 8,224.95.

On weekly basis, Sensex and Nifty has gone up by 890.83 points and 242.05 points, respectively, snapping their three-week losing streak.

Experts are also attributing today's rise to dovish stance of US Federal Reserve.

In a two-day monetary policy meet concluded on Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen left key interest rates unchanged near zero.

Sectorwise, BSE oil&gas gained the most by surging 1.11 per cent, followed by bankex 0.86 per cent, FMCG 0.75 per cent, PSU 0.72 per cent and auto 0.60 per cent.

In overseas markets, Asian markets ended higher and European stocks climbed in their opening trade.