Market surges 286 points

The benchmark Sensex surged by over 286 points on 20 August, on emergence of buying by funds in heavyweight stocks, triggered by a firming global trend.
The Sensex, which had been on a downward march since last few trading sessions, bounced back to surge 550 points during the day, before endingthe day 286.03 points up at 14,427.55.

The National Stock Exchange’s Nifty shot up 101 points to close at 4,209.05, after
touching the day’s high of 4,262.60 points.

The market regained strength as most of the global markets recorded handsome gains after the US Federal Reserve unexpectedly cut the rate at which it lends to banks by half a percentage point, easing concern about a widening credit crisis.

The Asian markets opened strong and European markets were trading higher, both influencing the bourses here.

“The financial markets seemed to be controlled temporarily and brought some relief to the stock markets,” said Mumbai-based broker Ratnesh Gupta.

The major support to the current firm trend came in from sectors like metal, banks, capital goods and oil and gas, which closed with significant gains.

However, information technology stocks remained weak on fears the volatile dollar in the forex market might effect the earnings of these companies as over 50 per cent of revenue comes from the US markets.

Early trade

The benchmark Sensex sky-rocketed by over 538.57 points in early trade on 20 August, on emergence of buying by funds in heavy-weight stocks, after the US Federal Reserve cut the rate of lending to banks.

The BSE-30 share index, Sensex, which was on a downward march in the last few trading on concerns over the unwinding subprime mortgage crisis in the US, bounced back by 538.57 points to 14,680.09 in first five minutes of trade on the BSE.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange’s Nifty shot up by 154.55 points to 4,262.60.

All Asian markets were up 3.5-5.5% during the morning trade on the back of a strong rally on Wall Street on Friday after the US Federal Reserve slashed a key US bank lending rate by 0.5 per cent in a bid to ease the credit crunch.