Sensex zooms over 1,400 pts on PM Modi's Rs 20 lakh cr economic booster

Equity benchmark Sensex rallied over 1,400 points in opening session on Wednesday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus pack to revive coronavirus-hit ecomy boosted domestic investor sentiment. After touching a high of 32,845.48, 30-share index pared some early gains to tre 818.68 points or 2.61 per cent higher at 32,189.80.

Similarly, NSE Nifty soared 213.50 points, or 2.32 per cent, to 9,410.05. ICICI Bank was top gainer in Sensex pack, surging around 7 per cent, followed by L&T, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Hero MotoCorp, M&M, UltraTech Cement and Maruti. On or hand, Nestle India, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma and Reliance Industries were tring in red.

In previous session, BSE barometer settled 190.10 points or 0.60 per cent lower at 31,371.12, and broer Nifty declined 42.65 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 9,196.55. Foreign portfolio investors offloed equities worth Rs 1,662.03 crore in capital market on Tuesday, provisional exchange data showed.

According to analysts, domestic investors cheered government's massive stimulus pack to revive pandemic-stricken ecomy. Prime Minister on Tuesday anunced massive new financial incentives on top of previously anunced packs for a combined stimulus of Rs 20 lakh crore.

He said pack will be around 10 per cent of GDP and "will play an important role in 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan' (self-reliant India campaign). special ecomic pack will have emphasis on land, labour, liquidity and laws, and will be for "our labourers, farmers, honest tax payers, MSMEs and cott industry", Modi said.

Meanwhile, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul were tring with losses as fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections gripped global markets. On Wall Street, stock exchanges settled on a negative te. International oil benchmark Brent crude futures were tring 1.53 per cent lower at USD 29.52 per barrel. In India, death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,415 and number of cases climbed to 74,281, according to health ministry. Globally, number of cases linked to disease has crossed 42.61 lakh and death toll has topped 2.91 lakh.