Sensex above 17,000, JP Morgan upgrades Indian stocks

Mumbai -  A benchmark index of Indian equities markets rallied in the last hour of trade Thursday to close above the 17,000-mark. The rebound was mainly due to good buying in banking, realty and capital goods stocks.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 16,855.60 points, closed 135.93 points, or 0.80 percent up at 17,032.56 points from its previous close of 16,896.63 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 17,050.44 points and a low of 16,799.63 points in the intra-day trade.

The BSE midcap index was up 48.11 points while the smallcap index was up 48.59 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was up 0.87 percent at 5,165 points.

The BSE realty index was up 45.60 points, the capital goods index was up 208.61 points and banking index was up 233.24 points.

The stocks gained despite the rupee touching a record low of 56.57 against dollar and adverse global cues. Overseas markets declined after the US Federal Reserve overnight decided in favour of a limited expansion of monetary stimulus and a survey showed China's factory sector slowed for an eighth month running.

Brokers and analysts attributed the uptrend in markets to the upgrading of Indian equities by investment bank JP Morgan to “overweight” from “neutral” and buying by foreign investors.

"Rupee reaction though added pain to the market in the first half. Market recovered in the second half as huge buying came in from FIIs. Infra stocks are witnessing huge buying on expectation of government action in this space," said Kishor P. Ostwal, of CNI Research.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs.119.58 crore Wednesday, according to provisional data from the stock exchanges.

The major Sensex gainers were BHEL, up 3.60 percent at Rs.222.75; SBI, up 2.89 percent at Rs.2,177.95; Larsen and Toubro, up 2.30 percent at Rs.1,372.75; Sterlite Inds, up 2.16 percent at Rs.99.35; and ICICI Bank, up 2.07 points at Rs.850.55.

The only five losers were RIL, down 2.58 percent at Rs.718.60; TCS, down 2.18 percent at Rs.1,224.80; Hindalco down 0.90 percent at Rs.121.30; Dr Reddys Lab, down 0.08 percent at Rs.1,588.25; and Jindal Steel, down 0.03 percent at Rs.439.15.

On the global front, most Asian markets closed on a lower note. At closing bell here, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE 100 were trading 0.41 and 0.63 percent lower respectively, while France's CAC was down 0.62 percent.