Mumbai: Indian shares rose more than 5% on Thursday afternoon, tracking a broad rally across Asia and Europe after positive US data fueled hopes the worst was behind for the world economy.
By 1:14pm, the 30-share BSE index was up 5.02% at 10,398.70 points. The 50-share NSE Nifty was up 4.97% at 3,212.45.
Late morning, shares jumped more than 4% led by financials such as ICICI Bank and State Bank of India, after positive US data boosted optimism the global economy had turned a corner.
Reliance Industries, the country’s most valuable company, rallied as much as 4.4% after the energy firm began pumping natural gas from its giant field off India’s east coast.
By 11:45am, the 30-share BSE index was up 4.4% at 10,341.24 points, with all stocks advancing. The 50-share NSE index was up 4.5% at 3,195.50.
Traders said the rise was spurred by gains across the region following Wall Street’s rally on Wednesday after data showed US factory activity in March fell at a slower rate than the month before, while pending home sales rose more than expected in February.
“The market is seeing the glass as half-full. Things have become less worse, even though they may not have become better. A lot of people who were left out of the rally are joining the party a little late,” VK Sharma, head of research at Anagram Stock Broking, said.
The BSE index, which has leapt about 28% since hitting a 2009 low in early March, could see a five-month high if it breaks above 10,469.72 reached on 7 January before Satyam Computer unveiled the country’s biggest corporate fraud and sparked a market slide.
“We may have seen the worst and only a catastrophic event globally can affect us now,” Madhusudan Kela, head of equity at Reliance Mutual Fund, told an investment seminar at the Bombay Stock Exchange late on Wednesday.
Private-sector lender ICICI Bank rose 7.2% to Rs374.75, while government-run State Bank of India gained 6.5% to Rs1,144.
Reliance Industries, which has the biggest weight on the main index, was up 4.1% at Rs1,643.70.
In the broader section, gainers led losers in the ratio of 4:1 on moderate volume of 180.1 million.
Asian shares were higher with Japan’s Nikkei up 4.4% and MSCI’s measure of other Asian markets rising 4.7%.