Sensex surges 222 points ahead of GST Council meet

The benchmark BSE Sensex ended higher by over 220 points due to fresh buying by participants ahead of the GST Council meeting today.

The GST Council chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is likely to announce on Friday a special package for micro, small and medium enterprises that will, among other things, address the concerns of exporters, as policymakers explore ways to fix an unexpected slowdown in economic growth.

The package comes a day after

Prime Minister Narendra Modi , while defending his government’s track record in managing the economy, said both demonetisation and the implementation of GST were structural reforms but that if “any sector needs temporary assistance” on account of these, “the government would” provide it.

He specifically referred to exporters and small and medium enterprises.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended higher by 222.19 points or 0.7 at 31,814.22 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed up 91 points or 0.92 per cent at 9,979.70.

All BSE sectoral indices ended in the positive zone. Among them, metal index gained the most by 3.14 per cent, followed by oil & gas 2.09 per cent, PSU 1.81 per cent and infrastructure 1.38 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Tata Steel (+4.73%), Sun Pharma (+3.19%), NTPC (+2.72%), State Bank of India (+2.11%) and HUL (+1.85%), while the major losers were Hero MotoCorp (-1.42%), Dr Reddy's (-0.4%), HDFC (-0.38%), PowerGrid (-0.02%) and HDFC Bank (-0.01%).

Asian stocks were up after optimism over US tax reform plans lifted Wall Street shares to new highs, while the dollar hovered near a seven-week peak following additional indications of solid economic growth.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia–Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1 per cent, poised for a 1.4 per cent gain on the week.