Sensex jumps 646 points, Nifty above 11,450 as RIL surges 7%

New Delhi: Equity benchmark indices were on an upswing on Thursday following a spurt in Asian markets with Reliance Industries and banking stocks leading the rally.

The BSE S&P Sensex closed 646 points or 1.69 per cent higher at 38,840 while the Nifty 50 gained by 171 points or 1.52 per cent at 11,449. Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty PSU bank gaining by 2.46 per cent, private bank by 1 per cent and financial service by 0.7 per cent.

Among stocks, index heavyweight Reliance Industries hit a record high to Rs 2,314.65 per share, up 7.1 per cent on BSE. At the closing bell, its market capitalisation stood at Rs 14.67 lakh crore (or close to 200 billion dollars).

The development came a day after announcing that US technology investor Silver Lake will invest Rs 7,500 crore in Reliance Retail Ventures.

Shares of State Bank of India (SBI) closed 1.67 per cent higher at Rs 198.15 per share after the country’s biggest lender said it raised Rs 4,000 crore via additional tier one (AT1) bonds.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation advanced by 6 per cent, IndianOil Corporation by 3.8 per cent, Axis Bank by 3.6 per cent, IndusInd Bank by 2.6 per cent and Tata Motors by 2.1 per cent.

However, Bharti Infratel lost by 4.7 per cent to close at Rs 200.40 per share. Hindalco, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Sun Pharma and Titan too traded with a negative bias.

Meanwhile, Asia’s stock markets rose following a bounce on Wall Street though investors remain cautious about the outlook.

Japan’s Nikkei rose by 0.88 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi surged by 0.87 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell by 0.64 per cent. (ANI)