India stocks gained, though the benchmark gauge still saw its worst week in four amid investor concern about the pace of a rally in equities.
The S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.7% to 33,780.9 points in Mumbai, rebounding from a drop of as much as 3.6%. The NSE Nifty 50 Index also reversed losses to gain 0.7%. Both measures are up more than 30% from a record drop on March 23.
Asia’s third-biggest economy is facing its first economic contraction in 40 years after a prolonged lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. India’s cases of Covid-19 are the highest in Asia and continue to rise even as the nation begins easing the world’s biggest lockdown.
“Traders are taking a contradictory bet and buying now after the drop this morning. Bulls are trying to come back and short covering has already happened,” said Umesh Mehta, head of research at Samco Securities Ltd.
Automobile, energy, and telecom stocks rose the most with Reliance Industries Ltd and Bharti Airtel Ltd among the biggest contributors to gains on the benchmark index, advancing 3.3% and 1.5% respectively. “There are also expectations that the government may provide relief to telecom companies amid the lockdown,” Mehta said.
Eleven out of 36 Nifty 50 companies that have reported quarterly results so far have beaten or matched analyst estimates.
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd was the biggest gainer on the Sensex index, rising 7.2%.
Thirteen of the 19 sector sub-indexes compiled by BSE Ltd advanced, led by automobile stocks.
Infosys Ltd contributed most to the Sensex decline, slipping 1.6% while Oil & Natural Gas Corp had the biggest fall, sinking 3.4%.
Meanwhile the rupee yesterday fell sharply against the US dollar amid a selloff in domestic equity markets, increased global risk-off sentiment and broad strength in the greenback. The rupee fell to 76.10 per US dollar at day’s low as compared to previous close of 75.78 per US dollar.
The rupee yesterday opened at 76.10 per US dollar and traded in the range of 76.10 to 75.84 so far during the day. It settled at 75.84.
The Sensex rebounded to end higher after being down about 1200 points at day’s low. Overnight, all three major US stock market indices plunged over 5% each. The US dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was up 0.12% to 96.855 yesterday, after strong overnight gains, indicating a flight to the safety of the dollar.
“Tepid economic recovery projected by the Fed, signs of a second wave of cases in US cities that took the lead in opening up and elevated ‘continuing jobless claims’ caused investors to question the recent euphoria and conduct a reality check,” said Abhishek Goenka, founder and CEO, IFA Global.
“The US dollar has staged a comeback against the emerging market currencies and G7,” he added. Foreign institutional investors were net sellers on Thursday in the capital market as they sold shares worth Rs805.14 crore.
Meanwhile, investor sentiment remained fragile due to rising coronavirus cases across the world.
India yesterday recorded over 10,000 new Covid-19 cases in a day for the first time, taking the tally to 2,97,535, while the death toll rose to 8,498 with a record single-day spike of 396 fatalities, according to the Health Ministry data.
“The uncertainty over coronavirus won’t completely fade away unless there’s a vaccine to it. So until then the appreciation in rupee will be limited, and we expect it to remain volatile. Currently, the USD/INR spot is hovering near its crucial resistance of 76. A consistent trading above that would take price towards 76.50, while 75.50 will act as a crucial support,” said Rahul Gupta, Head of Research- Currency, Emkay Global Financial Services.
Globally, the number of cases linked to the disease has crossed 75.14 lakh and the death toll has topped 4.21 lakh.
from Gulf Times https://ift.tt/3cQznHi
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