Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty gained almost 2 percent on Thursday, buoyed by upbeat corporate earnings and comments by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a financial daily that more economic reforms are on the cards.
The S&P BSE Sensex gained 486 points, or 1.88 percent, to close at 26,367, while the NSE Nifty ended 135 points, or 1.70 percent higher, at 8,070 on a day that marked completion of two years of the Narendra Modi government. The 50-scrip Nifty closed at a seven-month high, reported NDTVProfit.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Modi said the BJP-led NDA government has initiated many reforms during the two years in office and will continue to do so in its remaining term as well.
"We have made India a destination which welcomes capital by liberalizing foreign-direct investment policy, increasing the ease of doing business and bringing predictability in taxation. We will continue our upward trajectory on all of these," he told the daily, according to the edited excerpts of the interview.
Strong fourth quarter results by engineering and construction company Larsen & Toubro saw its share price zoom 14 percent to close at Rs. 1,472.60 on the BSE. The company's consolidated net profit for the March 2016 quarter rose 18.5 percent to Rs. 2,453 crore on a year-on-year basis, while net sales increased 18.5 percent to Rs. 32,812 crore, y-o-y.
Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Bankex gained 2.22 percent, Auto 1.09 percent, FMCG and IT 1.23 percent each.
On the NSE, the Nifty PSU Bank was the top sectoral index gainer at 3.66 percent.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs/FIIs) were net buyers of Indian equities worth Rs. 581.29 crore and domestic institutional investors purchased stocks worth Rs. 685.37 crore, according to provisional data published by the NSE.
The Indian rupee gained for the second consecutive day to close at 67.18 to the US dollar on Thursday.
