Thaindian News

Mumbai, Oct 28 (IANS) Indian equities markets closed near the day’s high Friday with a key index closing 516 points higher, buoyed by hopes of an end to the rate tightening cycle and European leaders coming to an agreement on measures to curb the debt crisis in the region.

The Reserve Bank of India had in its second quarterly review of the monetary policy said it would not hike rates further if inflation started coming down from December as it expected.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened higher at 17,671.86 points, closed at 17,804.8 points, up 515.97 points or 2.98 percent from its previous close at 17,288.83 points.

It had risen to an intra-day high of 17,908.13 points in morning trade.

The 50-scrip S&P; CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also closed similarly higher, 158.9 points or 3.05 percent up at 5,360.7 points.

Broader markets were also in the green with the BSE 500 index ending 2.54 percent up. The BSE midcap index closed 1.5 percent up, while the BSE small cap index ended 0.88 percent higher.

Indian markets had been closed Wednesday, except for an hour-long muhurat trading session, and Thursday on account of holidays.

“The market remained in a rising trend throughout the week and on the day of expiry (on Tuesday) it entered into medium-term up trend,” said Shrikant Chouhan, head -technical research, Kotak Securities.

“On the last day of the week due to strong global cues it opened up with a huge gap of approximately 200 points and the gap remained unfilled till the session expired, which is a bullish indication,” Chouhan added.

The market breadth was positive with 1,728 stocks advancing compared to 1,139 scrips on the decline and 92 remaining unchanged.

The prominent Sensex gainers included Hindalco, up 10.88 percent at Rs.142.20; Sterlite, up 8.8 percent at Rs.132.90; ICICI Bank, up 7.01 percent at Rs.932.95 and Tata Steel, up 6.45 percent at Rs.480.60.

There were only three losers on the benchmark: Maruti Suzuki, down 1.99 percent at Rs.1,128; Bharti Airtel, down 0.25 percent at Rs.391.85 and Bajaj Auto, down 0.11 percent at Rs.1,754.45.

Asian markets stocks too rose, buoyed by the European deal which is aimed at reducing Greece’s massive debt and preventing a sovereign debt crisis from spreading to other countries in the Euro zone.

The Japanese Nikkei Friday closed 1.39 percent higher at 9,050.47 points, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended 1.68 percent up at 20,019.24 points.

The Chinese Shanghai composite index ended 1.55 percent higher at 2,473.41 points.

European markets were ruling on a subdued note, off the day’s highs.

Around mid-day, Britain’s FTSE was trading 0.23 percent down at 5,700.87 points, while the French CAC 40 was ruling 0.15 percent up at 3,363.68 points.

The German DAX was also trading 0.15 percent up at 6,347.31 points.