Indian Stocks Soar, Investor Wealth Up Rs 7.30 Lakh Cr

New Delhi, Aug 16 (PTI) Investors' wealth soared by Rs 7.30 lakh crore on Friday, driven by a rally in equities, where benchmark Sensex jumped nearly 2 per cent amid easing fears of recession in the US.

The 30-share BSE benchmark jumped 1,330.96 points or 1.68 per cent to settle at 80,436.84, marking its best single-day gain in more than two months. During the day, it zoomed 1,412.33 points or 1.78 per cent to 80,518.21.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms surged Rs 7,30,389.86 crore to Rs 4,51,59,833.55 crore (USD 5.38 trillion).

"Positive US economic data like cooling inflation and robust retail sales numbers shrugged off recession fears while talks of a rate cut by the US Fed as early as next month fuelled a mega rally across global equities, including India.

"While local markets remained in positive territory throughout the session, buying opportunities emerged for local investors after the recent slump with banking, IT, auto, metal and realty stocks leading the upsurge," said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.

From Sensex firms, Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, UltraTech Cement, Tata Steel and ITC were the biggest gainers.

Sun Pharma emerged as the only laggard.

"The stability of the JPY has been instrumental in driving a global market recovery. Besides that, the strong US retail sales and a decline in weekly jobless claims have helped alleviate fears of a US recession.

"Further, the market sentiment has improved due to a decrease in US CPI inflation. Against the backdrop of these, the Indian IT firms exhibited strong buying interest," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge jumped 1.80 per cent and smallcap index climbed 1.70 per cent.

All indices ended higher.

The IT index soared 2.72 per cent, and realty jumped 2.45 per cent. Teck (2.23 per cent), auto (1.90 per cent), commodities (1.89 per cent), power (1.80 per cent), financial services (1.77 per cent) and consumer discretionary (1.74 per cent) also closed higher.

A total of 2,462 stocks advanced, while 1,467 declined and 107 remained unchanged on the BSE.