The BSE Sensex crossed 36,000 points for the first time on Tuesday, and the National Stock Exchange Nifty hit the 11,000 mark. Sensex climbed 341.97 points to close at 36,139.98, and Nifty went up 117.50 points to end at 11,083.70.
The market rally was a result of the Centre’s efforts to rein in the fiscal deficit, according to the Mint. The Finance Ministry had announced on January 17 that it would reduce additional borrowing to Rs 20,000 crore for the 2017-’18 fiscal, down from the Rs 50,000 crore it earlier planned to raise. The report said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interview with Times Now, in which he indicated that the Budget would not be a populist one, was likely to keep market sentiment high.
State Bank of India, Tata Steel, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, ICICI Bank and Coal India were the top gainers on the BSE on Tuesday. The biggest losers were Wipro, Tata Motors, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank and Tata Consultancy Services.
On the Nifty, stocks of Vedanta, GAIL, State Bank of India, Hindalco and Tata Steel gained the most. Eicher Motors, Ambuja Cements, Zee Entertainment, Wipro and Bharti Infratel were the worst performers.
All other major Asian markets also rose on Tuesday. The Hong Kong Hang Seng closed 537 points up, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 shut nearly 308 points higher. China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index rose by 45 points and the Taiwan TSEC 50 index was up by more than 20 points.
At 4 pm, the Indian rupee was trading at 63.77 against the United States dollar.
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