India Stock Markets Jump On Govt Reforms

Indian stock markets witnessed sharp upward movements as series of economic reforms recently announced by the government boosted market confidence amid optimism over encouraging corporate earnings.

The Sensex breached the 28,000-mark and the Nifty hit a new peak of 8,363.65 for the first time in early trade Wednesday on sustained capital inflows and falling global crude oil prices which dipped to its lowest closing point since October 2011.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex flared up by 141.57 points or 0.5 per cent to hit a new peak of 28,001.95, surpassing the previous intra-day record of 27,969.82 reached on Monday.

Breaching all previous records, the 50-share NSE index Nifty gained 39.50 points or 0.47 per cent to hit a new life-time high of 8,363.65. It had touched the intra-day lifetime high of 8,350.60 on Monday.

Marketmen said persistent inflow of foreign funds and sustained buying by retail investors, buoyed by a series of economic reforms undertaken by the government and better-than-expected earnings by blue-chip companies lifted the key indices to new highs.

Barring metal, all other BSE sectoral indices were trading significantly in the green. Among them, realty index gained the most by 1.4 per cent, followed by consumer durables 1.13 per cent, banking 1.07 per cent and FMCG 0.82 per cent. Only metal index was down 1.16 per cent.

Meanwhile, Asian shares got off to a lacklustre start after a plunge in oil prices dragged down US shares, while the dollar took a breather after this week's rally.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down about 0.1 per cent in early trade, while Japan's Nikkei stock average gave up about 0.2 per cent.