Sensex ends 236 points higher, Nifty closes above 12,100; GAIL, JSW Steel shine

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices on Tuesday (February 11) bounced back to close in the green. The Sensex was up 236.52 points at 41,216.14, while Nifty ended up 78.90 points at 12,110.40. Major gainers on the Nifty were GAIL, JSW Steel, Bharti Infratel, NTPC, and Maruti Suzuki, while Yes Bank, Britannia, BPCL, and Bharti Airtel were the top laggards. Except for FMCG, all other sectoral indices ended higher. 

At 11.19, the Sensex was up 353 points to 41,333.43 while the Nifty jumped 112 points to trade at 12,143.80. Buying was seen across all sectors led by metal and auto stocks which surged over 1 per cent each. GAIL, JSW Steel and Hindalco were the top gainers on the NSE.

Investors would also be cautious ahead of the macroeconomic data-points due to be released during the week including CPI/WPI inflation and IIP data.

During early hours on Tuesday, equity benchmark indices bounced amid firm global cues as investors continued to weigh the economic impact of ongoing coronavirus outbreak. At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 410 points to 41,390 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 125 points at 12,157. 

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive terrain with Nifty metal up by 2 per cent, auto by 1.2 per cent and financial service by 1 per cent.Among stocks, JSW Steel gained by 2.8 per cent to trade at Rs 285.75 per share while Tata Steel moved up by 2.5 per cent at Rs 455 apiece. 

Hindalco and Vedanta too advanced by 1.9 per cent each.Tata Motors accelerated by 3.4 per cent while Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank gained by 1.8 per cent and 1.7 per cent. The other prominent gainers were Reliance Industries, GAIL, ITC and UltraTech Cement.However, Tata Consultancy Services and Grasim traded with a negative bias.

Meanwhile, Asian share markets traded higher even as doubts grew about how quickly China`s factories can get back to work given that the coronavirus continues to spread and deaths mount.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose by 0.9 per cent while the Shanghai Composite up by 0.63 per cent. Hong Kong`s Hang Seng index surged by 1.27 per cent, South Korea`s Kospi gained by about 1.19 per cent while Japan`s Nikkei was closed for a holiday.

The relative outperformance of the US economy is keeping the dollar well-supported, with the euro slipping to a four-month low at $1.0910. The British pound was last at $1.2906 having touched a two-month trough of $1.2870.

Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was at its highest since mid-October at 98.858 and heading for its sixth day of gains in the last seven against the Japanese yen, which benefits from being a safe haven of its own.

Risk aversion initially helped lift gold to its highest for a week, but the strength of the dollar pulled it back 0.25% to $1,568.61 per ounce.

Oil prices rose after weeks of decline as traders waited to see how demand in China might fare and whether OPEC could agree to trim supplies. Brent crude futures gained 64 cents to $53.91 a barrel. US crude rose 50 cents to $50.07. 

(With Agency Inputs)