Falling oil helps Sensex crawl back to 34K again

Mumbai: Reversing a four-session slide, the BSE Sensex on Wednesday recaptured the 34,000-mark by jumping 187 points, amid easing crude oil prices and a recovery in the rupee.

The broader Nifty also managed to end above the 10,200-level.

Bear operators, who had been creating short-positions in the past several sessions, were seen covering up positions ahead of October month expiry in the derivatives segment on Thursday, brokers said.

Gains in banking and financial services stocks pushed the markets higher. However, losses in IT and pharma counters capped the upside. Bharti Airtel was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, surging 10.79 per cent, after the company said six global investors, including Warburg Pincus, Temasek, Singtel and SoftBank, have agreed to invest $1.25 billion in Airtel Africa.

Meanwhile, the rupee strengthened 41 paise to 73.16 against the US dollar in the forex market.

After opening on a strong footing, the Sensex quickly reclaim-ed the 34,000-mark to scale the session’s high of 34,300.97 in early hours of trade, largely supported by easing crude prices and recovery in the rupee amid positive Asian cues.

However, a sudden sell-off by investors dragged the benchmark into the negative zone. It hit a low of 33,726.07 points before finally concluding 186.73 points, or 0.55 per cent higher at 34,033.96.

The gauge had lost 1,315 points in the past four sessions on weak domestic as well as global factors.

The broader NSE Nifty too recovered by 77.95 points, or 0.77 per cent, at 10.224. Intra-day, it shuttled between 10,290 and 10,126. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made purchases worth a net of '116.41 crore, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares to the tune of '340.35 crore Tuesday, provisional data showed.

“Disappointed by the Q2 results of index heavyweights led by lower margins, market lost the early gains. But in the latter part these losses were recovered due to sharp fall in oil prices and short covering ahead the F&O expiry.

“Additionally, a recovery in rupee and drop in yield is expected to improve the liquidity situation supported by RBIs open market operations,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

Shares of oil marketing companies such as HPCL, BPCL and IOC gained up to 6.25 per cent on falling global crude oil prices.

Brent crude prices fell 4.37 per cent, its biggest single-day fall in three months, to USD 76.24 barrel Tuesday. The benchmark oil was trading at $76.72 per barrel Wednes-day. Stocks of aviation firms Spicejet, Inter-Globe and Jet Airways too fared better, gaining up to 4 per cent.