Stock Markets Rally on US Fed Rate Cut Hopes

Mumbai, Sep 12 (PTI) Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty climbed in early trade on Friday in-tandem with a global market rally amid rising hopes that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 287.93 points to 81,836.66 in early trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty rallied 84.25 points to 25,089.75.

From the Sensex firms, Infosys climbed 1.50 per cent after the IT services giant said its board has approved the company's largest-ever share buyback programme worth Rs 18,000 crore.

Tata Motors, Maruti, Mahindra & Mahindra, Axis Bank and Larsen & Toubro were also among the gainers.

However, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India and Titan were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai's SSE Composite index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng traded in positive territory.

US markets ended higher on Thursday.

"Globally stock markets are resilient drawing strength from the new records being set by the mother market US. The US market is bullish on expectations of rate cut from the Fed on September 17th," VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

After September 22nd the sharp rise in demand for consumer durables, particularly automobiles, will dominate economic and business news, he said.

"This, in turn, will provide the positive sentimental support to the market," Vijayakumar added.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,472.37 crore on Thursday, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth Rs 4,045.54 crore, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.87 per cent to USD 65.79 a barrel.

On Thursday, the Sensex climbed 123.58 points or 0.15 per cent to settle at 81,548.73, its fourth day of rally. The Nifty rose by 32.40 points or 0.13 per cent to settle at a nearly three-week high of 25,005.50, marking its seventh consecutive day of gains.