Sensex shrugs off inflation onslaught

The Sensex, which opened at 14,107 points, spiralled and crossed, 14,300-point mark within half an hour, reports BS Srinivasalu Reddy.

Snapping a four-session losing spree, the BSE Sensex bounced back with a 346 points gain on Thursday, with revival of buying interest across the board. The market survived another onslaught of inflation early in the day, and picked up robust Asian positive signals and positives from slashing of petroleum prices.

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The Sensex, which opened at 14,107 points, spiralled and crossed, 14,300-point mark within half an hour. Though there were expectations of a fall in the last hour, the news of cut in prices of petrol and diesel came in handy for the market to post further gains and close at 14,355.55.

With this, the benchmark index gained almost all the ground it lost on February 12 (348.20 point loss), though the total plunge of Sensex during the last four sessions was 642 points. Meanwhile, Nifty closed with a gain of 99.1 points at 4,146.20.

Inflation was up again from 6.58 to 6.73 per cent, but failed to trigger any kind of panic. Cut in petrol and diesel prices on Thursday was intended to fight inflation. However, they are likely to set the finances of refinery companies back by a few thousand crore rupees in the current quarter.

Amid high volumes in cash and Futures and Options segments, about 15 stock futures hit 95 per cent level, triggering ban on fresh buying in the counters.

The market is expected to continue its upward trend for at least 2-3 days. Advances were at four times the declines. NSE cash turnover crossed Rs 10,000 crore mark from Rs 8879 crore on Wednesday. F&O turnover remained above Rs 40,000 crore.

Bank and auto stocks posted a smart rebound, while IT, consumer durables, capital goods and metal stocks led the rally with over 3 per cent gains.

Email BS Srinivasalu Reddy: srinivasalu.reddy@hindustantimes.com