Shares snapped three straight sessions of losses, aided by gains in banking and IT stocks.
The Sensex staged a strong comeback to reclaim the key 33,000-mark by surging over 346 points to close at a one-week high of 33,107 today. Reliance Industries led the rally after global crude prices dropped. Infosys jumped the most. The Sensex opened hit the day’s high of 33,165.15 before settling up 346.38 points, or 1.06 per cent, at 33,106.82. This is the highest closing of November 10 when it had closed at 33,314.56.
The Sensex had lost 554.12 points in the previous three sessions on subdued exports, higher inflation and muted second quarter earnings of some companies.
Also, the NSE Nifty closed at 10,214.75, a hefty gain of 96.70 points, or 0.96 per cent, after touching a high of 10,232.25 and a low of 10,139.20.
Both the indices recorded single-biggest gains since November 1.
There was widespread value-buying amid firm global cues.
OIl prices
Oil refiners gained as oil prices dropped overnight after crude oil and gasoline stockpiles rose unexpectedly in the United States. Inventories climbed 1.9 million barrels last week as crude oil production and refining output rose, the Energy Information Administration said. Analysts expected for a decrease of 2.2 million barrels, according to a Reuters poll. On Thursday, oil markets were stable as rising US stocks were countered by expectations that OPEC will extend an ongoing production cut during a meeting at the end of this month.
“This is more of a corrective rally after three days of losses,” said Arun Kejriwal, Founder at Kejriwal Research.
Infosys surged 3.85 per cent to Rs 988.60 on the BSE. On October 31, the company turned ex-date for buyback. On Wednesday, Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy had said all is well between him and Chairman Nandan Nilekani. “Absolutely, all is well. Remember, in my speech with the investors, I said now that we have Nandan as the chairman, we can all sleep well,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Infosys Prize for 2017-18.
SBI (+2.54% to Rs 333.45), Reliance (2.27% to Rs 902.45), NTPC (1.58% to Rs 176.70) and TCS (1.49% to Rs 2,746.60) were the other prominent gainers.
The Nifty energy index gained as much as 1.47 per cent, with Reliance Industries Ltd rising 2.44 per cent and Indian Oil Corp Ltd advancing 1.16 per cent.
Financials also gained. The Nifty bank index rose 0.90 per cent. PNB, Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda gained by up to 5.20 per cent.
Shares of Suzlon Energy declined as much as 6.2 per cent, their lowest in more than a year. The renewable power producer suspended operations and declared a lockout at a plant in Karnataka due to a workers' dispute. The stock ended down 0.73 per cent to Rs 13.55.
Global markets
Investors tentatively returned to world stock markets on Thursday, looking for bargains after Europe's longest losing streak of the year and the worst run since March for the top global indices.
After five consecutive daily losses on the MSCI index of world stocks and seven straight falls in Europe, there was a bounce of sorts.
Benchmark indices in Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong and Seoul all rallied overnight, while London, Frankfurt and Paris started 0.3-0.4 percent higher as cyclical stocks which had driven the sell-off made a comeback.