Sensex jumps 748 points, Reliance Industries spurts 7.4%

New Delhi: Bulls held a firm grip on the D-Street on Tuesday as equity benchmark indices scaled up 2 per cent with broad-based buying across financial, auto and realty sectors.

At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 748 points or 2.03 per cent at 37,688 while the Nifty 50 gained by 211 points or 1.94 per cent at 11,103.

Except for Nifty IT, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty financial service moving up by 2.3 per cent, private bank by 2 per cent, realty by 1.8 per cent and auto by 1.6 per cent.

But Nifty IT dipped by 0.7 per cent after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting federal agencies from contracting or subcontracting foreign workers.

Among stocks, index heavyweight Reliance Industries offset yesterday’s losses and gained by 7.44 per cent to close the session at Rs 2,158.50 per share.

HDFC Bank advanced by 6.3 per cent after reports said that the Reserve Bank of India has approved the appointment of Sashidhar Jagdishan as the new Chief Executive Officer. The Additional Director and Head of Finance and HR will replace long-serving leader Aditya Puri.

Axis Bank and ICICI Bank ticked up by 2.7 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively while auto majors Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp added gains of 3.2 per cent and 2.7 per cent.

The other prominent gainers were Zee Entertainment, JSW Steel, HDFC and Dr Reddy’s.

However, IT stocks slipped with HCL Technologies down by 1.8 per cent and Infosys by 0.5 per cent each. IndusInd Bank was down by 2 per cent while Tata Motors, Grasim and Hindustan Lever traded with a negative bias.

Meanwhile, Asian markets rose after strong US manufacturing data and gains in tech stocks helped investors look past worries about the coronavirus and global economy.

Japan’s Nikkei jumped by 1.7 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng by 2 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi by 1.29 per cent. Shanghai composite rose by 0.11 per cent. (ANI)