Sensex, Nifty Rally As Dollar Slides; Metals And Financials Top Gainers
(RTTNews) - Indian shares posted strong gains on Friday as the dollar rally against major rivals stalled and U.S. Treasury yields declined, boosting investors' risk appetite.
Risk sentiment improved after the Bank of England intervened to calm markets and the British government agreed to meet with the country's independent budget experts.
Additionally, new data showed the U.K. economy has not yet fallen into a recession. U.K. GDP for the second quarter of this year has been revised upwards to show growth of 0.2 percent from the previous estimate of a contraction of 0.1 percent.
Closer home, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), raised its benchmark rate for the fourth straight time as expected, doing a fine tight rope walking between inflation, growth and stability.
After hiking the repo rate by 50 bps, Governor Shaktikanta Das said inflation will likely come down close to the target of 4 percent over a two-year period.
On the rupee, he said the central bank does not have any fixed dollar-rupee exchange rate and its market interventions are intended at curbing excessive volatility.
The GDP growth forecast for 2022-23 has been revised down to 7.0 percent from 7.2 percent.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex jumped 1,016.96 points, or 1.80 percent, to 57,426.92, with metal and financial stocks leading the surge.
The broader NSE Nifty index climbed 276.25 points, or 1.64 percent, to 17,094.35 while the rupee traded up 12 paise at 81.61 against the dollar in the afternoon.
Among the top gainers, Bajaj FinServ, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel and Hindalco rallied 3-6 percent.
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