sensex news of the day: ET Market Watch: 5 key factors driving stock market gains today
Sensex rose 700 points intraday today and Nifty also touched 22,600 points intraday. At the close, Sensex was up 487 points and Nifty was up 168 points. Here are the factors driving today’s rally:
1. Purchase at the bank
Axis Bank was the biggest contributor to the surge, rising over 6% intraday after reporting strong fourth quarter results. Other top contributors were ICICI Bank and SBI. The Nifty Bank index was up over 300 points at the close.
2. Global market
Major Asian indices traded in the green. China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.30%, while the Hang Seng Index rose nearly 0.5 percentage point. Bangkok and Manila also rose. Japan performed poorly due to the fall in the yen.
3. Monthly expiration
Thursday is also the monthly expiration date, with the May series starting on Friday. Investors tend to liquidate their positions before expiration.
4. Oil
Oil prices fell as concerns about the U.S. economic slowdown and the possibility of interest rate cuts being postponed became more important than concerns about deepening conflict in the Middle East. Brent crude oil was traded at $87.96 per barrel, and U.S. WTI was traded at $82.7 per barrel.
5. Dollar Index
It was down 0.2% at 105.6, with Asian currencies falling due to rising U.S. bond yields. The rupee remained unchanged at 83.3225 per US dollar.
