Mumbai, May 18: The country's largest bank SBI's manifold rise in profits came to the rescue of markets, with Sensex closing 82 points up at 16,152.75 after plunging below the key 16,000 level amid rupee woes and worsening Eurozone crisis coming back to haunt investors in early trade.
The BSE benchmark Sensex seemed headed for another turmoil after rupee threatened to breach the next psychological level of 55 against dollar. The 30-share index shed 260 points in sync with rupee which fell to 54.90.
“The political turmoil in Greece has made the sentiments jittery around the globe. The Indian markets opened with deep cuts in almost all the sectoral indices. They fell down on cautious sentiments.
High volatility in the currency market aided the downtrend. Rupee continued to plunge to record lows for yet another day,” said Rakesh Goyal, Sr. Vice President, Bonanza Portfolio.
However, State Bank of India took investors by huge surprise with its 200 times rise in quarterly profits at Rs 4,050 crore—its highest ever. The lender declared 350 per cent dividend, bolstering investor sentiment. SBI shares zoomed over 5 per cent which dramatically lifted the mood of markets.
The recovery in rupee aided by RBI also boosted the sentiment as the currency moved to Rs 54.44 from its record low levels of 54.90 in early trade. It had closed Rs 54.47 versus the US dollar yesterday, after hitting all-time lows.
“Better-than-expected results from SBI led the turnaround. .. the rupee reversed from intra-day lows and further helped sentiments,” said Dipen Shah, Fundamental Research Head, Kotak Securities.
Led by SBI, BSE-Bankex was the top sectoral index with a rise of 1.75 per cent. SBI, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank together added about 65 points to the Sensex rise.
Similarly, the NSE 50-share Nifty also touched a low of 4,788.95, before recovering to settle at 4,891.45. Investor wealth rose by nearly Rs 15,000 crore today.
Brokers said investors shrugging off negative sentiments from retail inflation spurting to double-digit mark to 10.36 per cent in April and the Eurozone concerns was a positive sign for Indian stock markets today.
Earlier in the day, Asian shares fell steeply on Eurozone debt worries after more signs emerged of growing instability among Spanish banks and political turmoil in Greece, with the latest sluggish economic data from the United States adding to the list of risks for investors.
Key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan,Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea settled down between 1.3-3.4 per cent.
The fears of Greece's exit from Eurozone amid ratings major Moody's downgrading 16 Spanish banks yesterday also weighed on the global market mood. In Europe, the FTSE was trading lower while the DAX and the CAC recovered their early losses and were marginally up.
Among the 30 Sensex stocks today, 19 scrips ended with losses while 11 finished with gains.
Other gainers from the Sensex pack were Sterlite Industries (2.38 pc), ICICI Bank (2.26 pc), NTPC (2.22 pc), Gail India (2.12 pc), ITC (1.85 pc), Jindal Steel (1.80 pc), M&M (1.23 pc) and ONGC (1.04 pc).
However, blue-chips like Tata Motors fell by 4.06 per cent followed by Maruti Suzuki (3.31 pc), Bajaj Auto (2.63 pc), BHEL (2.09 pc), Tata Steel (1.48 pc), Coal India (1.08 pc) and Hero Motocorp (1.03 pc).
Besides BSE-Bankex, other sectoral indices amongst winners included BSE-FMCG (1.14 pc), BSE-PSU (0.79 pc) and BSE-Oil&Gas (0.58 pc). The BSE-Auto fell by 1.90 per cent and BSE-Capital Goods shed 0.53 per cent today and ended as the worst performing sectors.
The market breadth continued to remain negative as 1,464 stocks ended with losses while 1,228 stocks finished with gains. The total turnover of the market shot up to Rs 2,024.18 crore from Rs 1,804.73 crore yesterday.
