MUMBAI: In a volatile session, the sensex closed 92 points up at 49,584 points as European markets traded higher in early trades while the futures on Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices showed strong opening. The day’s gains came on the back of a Rs 1,077-crore net buying by foreign funds.
As the US markets opened higher with both Dow and S&P 500 hitting new life-highs — backed by talks of another stimulus announcement by US President-elect Joe Biden late on Thursday, market players here expect a strong opening on Dalal Street too on Friday. The leading indices in the US rose despite a morethan-expected unemployment claims, a sign of rising number of Covid infections, media reports said.
Of the 30 sensex stocks, 15 closed higher. TCS, Reliance and L&T contributed the most to the index’s gains, while selling in Infosys, Axis Bank and HCL Tech limited the rally to some extent.
The S&P 500 rose for the seventh time in nine sessions this year as investors count on Biden to unveil during a prime-time address on Thursday evening a stimulus plan that could exceed $1.5 trillion. “We’re really focused on the stimulus measures so we largely ignored the fact that we also had a really big spike in jobless claims,” said Max Gokhman, head of asset allocation at Pacific Life Fund Advisors in Newport Beach, California. “Perhaps it’s back to bad-news-is-good-news situation, where market expects that deteriorating economic data will motivate lawmakers to issue even more stimulus.”