Mumbai, India (BBN) – Continuing its rising streak, the benchmark BSE Sensex was trading higher by nearly 80 points as the Lok Sabha approved four legislations to give shape to the historic GST amid short-covering in view of March series expiry.
Indian domestic sentiment was boosted after the much-awaited tax reform — Goods and Services Tax (GST) — inched closer to its July 1 rollout date with the Lok Sabha approving four supplementary legislations yesterday, brokers said, reports The Hindu Business Line.
Short-covering by participants with today being the last trading session of March series contracts in the derivatives segment supported the Sensex uptrend, they said.
At 11:35am, the 30-share BSE index Sensex was up 77.67 points or 0.26 per cent at 29,609.10 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 16.65 points or 0.18 per cent at 9,160.45.
Among BSE sectoral indices, realty index was the star-performer and was up 2.5 per cent, consumer durables 1.37 per cent, infrastructure 0.73 per cent and capital goods 0.72 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Adani Ports (+2.23 per cent), State Bank of India (+1.27 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (+1.05 per cent), Maruti (+0.82 per cent) and Reliance (+0.75 per cent), while the major losers were Tata Motors (-0.41 per cent), Axis Bank (-0.35 per cent), Bharti Airtel (-0.3 per cent), Coal India (-0.27 per cent) and Lupin (-019 per cent).
Asian shares edged up to near their highest in two years on Thursday, while the dollar benefited from waning expectations that the European Central Bank was poised to end its easy policy.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.2 per cent higher in early trade, pushing against its loftiest levels since June 2015.
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