Andrew L Dcunha
Mumbai, Sep 6: After trading in negative zone for most of the day, Indian markets made a strong comeback taking cues from positive European peers. The Sensex after touching a low of 16,488 recovered 406 points. The index ended up 149 points at 16,863. Nifty was up 47 points at 5,064. Oil&gas, technology and capital goods led the upmove. Nifty.ended at 5071.85, up 54.65 points or 1.09 per cent. The broader index touched a high of 5072.90 and low of 4942.90 in trade today. Reliance, which has the heaviest weight on the main index was the single most driving factor for the Index as it rallied 4.14 per cent after BP India head said it was confident of raising gas output from Reliance's KG D6 blocks in about two years.
Asian markets however, edged lower. Nikkei ended at multi-year lows a 8,590 - down 2.2%. Shanghai, Seoul and Straits markets also dropped in trades. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index / saw a late recovery to end 0.5% higher. In Europe markets rose Tuesday, led by strong gains in Zurich after the Swiss National Bank stepped in to halt the rising franc by setting a minimum exchange rate against the euro, CAC has gained 0.6% while FTSE has jumped 1% in trades. The European Central Bank is expected to keep its key interest rate unchanged at 1.5% at its monthly policy meeting on interest rates on Thursday. The Bank of England's monetary policy is also expected to come in on the same day.
Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth $404 million so far in September, after having sold more than $2 billion in August.
Gold slips back after hitting record high
Gold futures corrected by more than 1% on Tuesday afternoon, retreating from a record high in opening trades. At 3:25 pm, the October contract on the Multi Commodity Exchange was down 0.74 percent to Rs. 28,275 per 10 grams, after a record high of Rs. 28,744 earlier in the day.
International spot gold fell by more than 2% on Tuesday, having earlier risen to a record high at $1,920.30 an ounce, after the Swiss National Bank surprised the markets with its decision to peg the franc to the euro to tame the currency’s runaway rally this year.
Andrew L D Cunha, Managing Director, WinWin Fin Advisory Pvt. Ltd. Mangalore. Email: finadvisoryltd@yahoo.com