Kamal Ghorui
MUMBAI: Staging a spirited recovery, stock markets pared early losses to close higher on Thursday, sensex rising by 185 points and Nifty settling above 22,700 on strong value buying in IT and banking shares and a sharp rebound in the rupee.Rebounding more than 2,000 points from the day’s low, sensex finally settled higher by 185 points, or 0.3%, at 73,320. The index opened lower and tanked further by 1,588 points to hit a day’s low of 71,546 in the first half of the session. Strong value buying in IT bellwethers like HCL Tech and TCS, and banking giants HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, helped the barometer recover from sharp losses, hitting a high of 73,569 in the pre-close session.On the NSE, the Nifty followed a similar trajectory and closed above 22,700 at 22,713, up by 34 points, or 0.2%. The index fell 497 points, or 2.2%, in early trade before recovering to hit a high of 22,782.A sharp rebound in the rupee after RBI stepped in with a slew of measures to restrict banks from onshore forward markets also helped improve investor sentiment.A total of 2,649 stocks advanced, while 1,589 declined and 149 remain unchanged on the BSE.“Indian equity markets opened on the back foot as Trump’s renewed threat to strike Iran ‘extremely hard’ swiftly erased the optimism built in the prior session, triggering broad-based selling across Asian markets,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments.Crude oil spiked more than 7% after Trump’s speech, with Brent trading at %109 per barrel.
