Equity Investors Become Richer By Rs 3.24 Lakh Crore As Markets Rally

Investors' wealth grew by Rs 3.24 lakh crore on Thursday as the BSE Sensex jumped nearly 1% after a two-day slide.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 490.97 points or 0.69% to settle at 71,847.57. During the day, it rallied 598.19 points or 0.83% to 71,954.79.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies climbed Rs 3,24,010.1 crore to hit an all-time high of Rs 3,68,32,843.41 crore.

'Market bounced back after the last two negative trading days led by strong monthly business updates of leading banks, emphasizing robust credit growth. The realty sector was the highest gainer in anticipation of robust demand in the residential category, which was supported by healthy housing loans disbursement data announced by banks,' Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

Among the Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance jumped 4.44% and NTPC climbed 3.54%. IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, Nestle, Power Grid, Infosys, Bajaj Finserv and HDFC Bank were the other major winners.

HCL Tech, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel and Hindustan Unilever were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled in the negative territory.

European markets were trading in the green. The U.S. markets ended lower on Wednesday.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge jumped 1.49% and smallcap index climbed 1.04%.

Among the indices, realty zoomed 6.61%, utilities jumped 2.55%, telecommunication (2.09%), services (1.68%), financial services (1.30%) and consumer discretionary (0.82%).

Auto and metal were the laggards.

'With economic activity remaining buoyant, expectations of a healthy corporate earnings announcement could keep the mood upbeat going ahead,' Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd, said.