It was the day of bulls. As expected, the stock market on Wednesday gave a thumbs up to the government’s victory in the vote of confidence motion in the Parliament — a development that may pave the way for key economic reforms. The benchmark BSE Sensex registered its biggest single day rise of 838 points or 5.94 per cent at 14,942.28 in nearly four months. The broad-based S&P CNX Nifty advanced 236.70 points or 5.58 per cent at 4476.80.

Investors, who took a big hit in the last four months, were smiling again as their wealth — or market capitalisation — rose by a whopping Rs 255,000 crore to Rs 47.82 lakh crore in a single day.

Adding to the bullishness, easing crude oil prices and firmness in global markets were other positive factors that moved the domestic indices higher. Giving relief to investors across the world, crude oil fell to near six-week lows of $ 126.34 per barrel on Wednesday — nearly 14 per cent lower than record $147.27 hit earlier this month. Banking, realty and capital goods sector shares led the rally. ADAG (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group) companies like Reliance Natural Resources that surged on huge volumes were the cynosure of all eyes.

“We think markets will see the outcome as positive in the short term. Although markets were expecting the government to survive, the vote and the margin of victory removes the element of political uncertainty that has been dogging sentiment for some time,” said Tushar Poddar, Vice President Asia Economic Research, Goldman Sachs.

... contd.