Sensex up 360 pts, Nifty tests 5900 on Bernanke's comments

Moneycontrol Bureau
Live Market Commentary

10:00 am: Dealers say trading bands for government bonds is relaxed to 30 basis points, 20 bps and 15 bps across tenors. Trading in some government bonds were halted for sometime after yields hit daily lower limit. However, trading was resumed after FIMMDA widened band.

9:50 am Labour pangs update: M&M will observe no production days at its auto plants for eight days.

9:45 am: Buzzing: IndusInd Bank shares were up 2 percent to Rs 505.25 after the company's first quarter numbers declared Wednesday were better than market expectations.

Brokerage house Kotak Securities has raised its target price for the stock to Rs 530 from 490 and retained its ‘add’ recommendation on the stock, post the earnings.

9:40 am Houseview: CLSA has maintained sell rating on SAIL with a target price of Rs 35 per share.  The brokerage has reduced FY14-15 EPS by 38-47 percent.

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9:35 am Gold: Gold jumped to 2.5 week high in more than two weeks on Thursday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the US central bank will continue to pursue an accommodative monetary policy for now to support the economy, reports Reuters.

Spot gold was up 1.8 percent to USD 1,285.76 an ounce by 0024 GMT, extending gains into a fourth day. It earlier climbed to USD 1,289.35 - its highest since June 24.

US gold jumped as much as 3.3 percent to a two- and-a-half week high of USD 1,288.3. Spot silver also rose 3 percent to USD 19.93 - its highest in one and a half weeks.

9:30 am OFS Update: The offer for sale of Hindustan Media Ventures has begun today. HT Media has set the floor price for its offer for sale at Rs 120 a share. It will divest over 19 lakh shares in Hindustan Media Ventures. HT Media holds 76.94 percent stake in Hindustan Media Ventures. HT Media is at Rs 97.50, up Rs 2.45, or 2.58 percent on the BSE.

9:24 am Gainers: Hindalco (up 2.80 percent), L&T (up 2.61 percent), ICICI Bank (up 2.41 percent), Tata Power (up 2.32 percent) and Infosys (up 2.13 percent) are top gainers in the Sensex.

9:22 am Market check: The Sensex surges 288.17 points at 19582.29, and the Nifty is up 91.40 points at 5908.10.  About 615 shares have advanced, 127 shares declined, and 39 shares are unchanged.

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The market opens on strong note climbing on global cues. The Sensex opens up 235.62 points 19529.74 while the Nifty is up 76.55 points at 5893.25.  About 276 shares have advanced, 36 shares declined, and 18 shares are unchanged. Asian shares climbed to a three-week high on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke assurance that highly accommodative monetary policy is needed now.

Indian rupee appreciated further in early trade Thursday, opening with 34 paise gains at 59.32 per dollar as against previous day's closing value of 59.66.

The domestic currency has been gaining for the third consecutive day today after hitting a record low of 61.21 per dollar Monday.

The euro spiked to 1.30 to the dollar. Meanwhile, the dollar index slumped to sub 83 levels post dovish comments from fed chief, Ben Bernanke.

Mohan Shenoi of Kotak Mahindra Bank feels dovish comments by Bernanke and indication in FOMC minutes that further improvement in the labour market outlook is needed for tapering asset purchases has led to dollar weakness.

Brent crude rose to USD 108 per barrel. From the precious metals space, gold rose to USD 1286 an ounce.

Markets finished largely unchanged in lacklustre trading as investors largely shrugged off the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting that showed policymakers wanted further evidence of a sustainable jobs recovery before scaling back its bond purchases. The CBOE volatility index finished near 14.