Sensex, Nifty Rupee Market Updates (March 18): Sensex Surges 300 Points, Nifty Reclaims 11,500, Rupee Hits 68 Per Dollar

Sensex Surges 300 Points Higher, Nifty Hits 11,500; Rupee At 7-Month High

The Nifty 50 index reclaimed its crucial psychological level of 11,500.

Domestic equity benchmarks (Sensex and Nifty) surged along with the Indian rupee (INR) on the back of strong foreign fund inflows. The Nifty 50 index reclaimed its crucial psychological level of 11,500 as both the indexes continue to trade at over six month highs. The foreign institutional investors have been buying shares since the start of this month, the foreign portfolio investors have so far purchased shares worth Rs 17,919 crore, according to data compiled by National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).

Here are 10 things to know:

The S&P BSE Sensex rose as much as 345.27 points or 0.90 per cent to 38,369.59 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index climbed as much as 103 points or 0.90 per cent to 11,530.15.
As of 9:57 am, the Sensex traded 306 points higher at 38,330 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index was up 92 points at 11,519.
The rupee rose as much as 0.25 per cent or 18 paise to hit over seven-month high of 68.92 versus US dollar.
In Friday's session alone, the foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs. 4,323.49 crore, according to provisional figures on the National Stock Exchange.
Nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Private Bank Index's 1.4 per cent gain. Nifty Bank, Realty and Financial Service Indexes also climbed over a per cent each. On the flipside, Nifty Pharma Index was top loser, down 0.69 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as the S&P BSE MidCap Index rose 0.60 per cent and the S&P BSE SmallCap Index advanced 0.56 per cent.
In the Nifty 50 basket of shares, 38 were advancing while 12 were on the losing side.
Indian Oil was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock rose 3.72 per cent to Rs 163.20. Axis Bank, Hindustan Petroleum, Adani Ports, Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Reliance Industries and Asian Paints were also among the gainers up between around 2 per cent each.
On the flipside, Maruti Suzuki was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock fell 2.79 per cent to Rs 6,886. Grasim Industries, Vedanta, Bharti Infratel, Wipro, Eicher Motors and Sun Pharma were also among the laggards.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,124 shares were advancing while a little over 650 shares were declining on the BSE.