Sensex rallies over 450 pts in early trade; Nifty tops 17,650

PTI, Sep 23, 2021, 10:34 AM IST

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex rallied over 450 points in opening trade on Thursday amid a positive trend in global markets after the US Federal Reserve hinted that it may begin easing its extraordinary support measures for the economy later this year.

The 30-share Sensex was trading 487.42 points or 0.83 per cent higher at 59,414.75. Similarly, Nifty surged 142.50 points or 0.81 per cent to 17,689.15 in initial deals.

Axis Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising nearly 2 per cent, followed by Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, SBI, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Kotak Bank.

On the other hand, Titan and Tech Mahindra were the laggards.

In the previous session, the 30-share index slipped 77.94 points or 0.13 per cent to close at 58,927.33, and Nifty declined 15.35 points or 0.09 per cent to 17,546.65.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,943.26 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional exchange data.

US stocks finished sharply higher in the overnight session after the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep its massive USD 120 billion monthly asset purchase programme intact to support the economy, said Binod Modi Head-Strategy at Reliance Securities.

The Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed plans to announce as early as November that it will start to taper its monthly bond purchases, should the job market maintain its steady improvement.

“Powell indicated that the Central Bank may announce a pullback of its asset purchase programme in the November policy meeting and could start to raise interest rates in 2022, which was largely expected by markets.

“In our view, investors may continue to take comfort out of the FOMC meeting in the context that there is no final time frame yet to cut or stop asset purchase programmes,” he noted.

Domestic equities look to be good as of now, he said, adding that favourable outcome from FOMC meeting and visible ease of rising concerns from possible defaults from Evergrande should essentially offer comfort to global markets.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading with gains in mid-session deals, while Seoul was in the red. The Japanese market remained closed.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.25 per cent to USD 76.38 per barrel.