Markets Stage Relief Rally; Banking, Auto Stocks Lead

Mumbai: Benchmark indices staged a strong comeback Wednesday after the recent rout as investors accumulated battered financials, auto and metal stocks amid rupee recovery from record lows.

The BSE Sensex, after a gap up opening of 34,493.21, rallied to hit a high of 34,858.35 before ending 461.42 points, or 1.35 per cent, higher at 34,760.89.

The broader Nifty too reclaimed the key 10,400 mark. It touched a high of 10,482.35, before finally settling at 10,460.10, showing a significant gain of 159.05 points, or 1.54 per cent.

Key indices stayed in the positive terrain through the session as buying activity gathered momentum.

The Sensex had lost nearly 175 points Tuesday.

Sentiment also got a lift after the SBI, coming to the rescue of cash-strapped NBFCs, decided Tuesday to buy their assets to the tune of Rs 45,000 crore, a move that will provide liquidity support to non-banking financing companies (NBFCs) facing headwinds after a series of loan defaults by IL&FS group firms.

"The market turned positive from over sold region led by financial stocks and marginal gain in rupee. Besides, RBI's open market operation to buy government bonds will ease concerns about liquidity crunch in the system," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said.

According to Rohit Srivastava, Fund Manager PMS, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, the stronger rupee aided the relief rally as bond yields had already cooled off in the last few days, easing the pressure on an extremely oversold market and resulted in fresh buying or short covering.

The rupee recovered by 34 paise to 74.05 (intra-day) against the dollar at the forex market Wednesday.

"Global markets were also at ease as US bond yields and the US Dollar cooled off yesterday. If the pressure remains lifted then these gains may continue in the coming days, Srivastava added.

Meanwhile, Brent crude, the international benchmark, was hovering around USD 84.30 a barrel.

"All eyes are shifting to earnings, which should provide some respite to the equity markets," Sunil Sharma, Chief Investment Officer, Sanctum Wealth Management.

Benchmarks largely benefited from value buying in beaten-down stocks, led by Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel, Yes Bank and SBI amid a better trend at other Asian markets, traders said.

Stocks of NBFCs such as Dewan Housing climbed 16.08 per cent, while Shriram Transport Finance rallied 13.48 per cent. Bajaj Fiance gained 9.91 per cent and Bajaj Finserv rose 10.06 per cent.

Shares of Bandhan Bank rose 5.60 per cent after the company on Wednesday posted a 47.28 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 487.65 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2018.

Aviation stocks, too, were in demand on reports of a likely cut in excise for aviation turbine fuel (ATF). Jet airways, Spicejet and InterGlobe Aviation gained up to 7.78 per cent.

Auto stocks also gathered steam along with banks, infrastructure, metals and pharmaceuticals.

Axis Bank emerged as the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, surging 6.62 per cent, followed by SBI at 5.88 per cent.

Other gainers were Maruti Suzuki 4.77 per cent, Yes Bank 4.44 per cent, ICICI Bank 4.18 per cent, Vedanta 2.86 per cent, Kotak Bank 2.66 per cent, Adani Ports 2.59 per cent, L&T 2.54 per cent and Tata Motors 2.44 per cent.

Also, Bharti Airtel 2.44 per cent, IndusInd Bank 1.99 per cent, Asian Paints 1.99 per cent, Tata Steel 1.88 per cent, Bajaj Auto 1.52 per cent, HDFC 1.47 per cent, NTPC 1.39 per cent, HDFC Bank 1.22 per cent, ONGC 1.19 per cent, RIL 1.10 per cent and HUL 0.82 per cent.

Hero MotoCorp and ITC too ended higher.

Bucking the trend, Infosys, TCS, Sun Pharma, Wipro and Coal India dropped up to 2.38 per cent.

The BSE realty index took the top position among sectoral indices, rising 4.44 per cent, followed by consumer durables (3.77 per cent), bankex (3.53 per cent), capital goods (3.40 per cent), PSU (3.12 per cent), infrastructure (2.84 per cent), auto (2.82 per cent), power (2.69 per cent), metal (1.88 per cent), healthcare (1.80 per cent), oil and gas (1.76 per cent) and FMCG (1.66 per cent) indices.

However, IT and teck indices ended in the negative zone, falling up to 1.52 per cent.

The broader markets showed a firm trend, with the mid-cap and small-cap indices gaining 4.70 per cent and 3.94 per cent, respectively.

Asian markets, too, ended higher with Japan's Nikkei rising 0.16 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.18 per cent each.

Stocks in Europe were trading in negative zone in mid-morning deals.

Frankfurt's DAX fell 0.32 per cent, while Paris CAC 40 down 0.56 per cent. London's FTSE too was down 0.27 per cent.