By IANS
Mumbai : The Indian equities market opened with a big upward surge Wednesday, piggybacking on the rally in the US markets as America’s Federal Open Market committee cut the fed funds and discount rates by 75 basis points Tuesday.
The Sensex, the 30-share benchmark sensitive index of the Bombay Stock Exchange, opened with a huge upsurge of 493 points at 15,325.79. Twenty minutes into trading, the Sensex was at 15,422.41, up by nearly 589 points compared to its close Tuesday.
At the same time the S&P Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was at 4,684.30 points, up by 151.30 from its previous close.
The market breadth was positive with modest volumes. In the initial trade 947 scrips advanced, 176 declined and 15 remained unchanged.
Other Asian markets were trading firm. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 3.61 percent or 772.85 points at 22,157.46. Japan’s Nikkei gained 3.23 percent or 386.06 points at 12,350.22. Taiwan’s Taiwan Weighted rose 2.04 percent or 164.32 points at 8,222.14. Singapore’s Straits Times rose 2.05 percent or 58.15 points at 2,891.73. South Korea’s Seoul Composite advanced 2.51 percent or 39.92 points at 1,628.67.
In New York, Wall Street ran up its biggest one-day gain in over five years following the interest rate cut Tuesday. Dow added 420.41 points, or 3.51 percent, to close at 12,392.66. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 54.14 points, or 4.24 percent to reach 1,330.74, and the Nasdaq composite index advanced 91.25 points, or 4.19 percent to 2,268.
In Mumbai, ICICI bank, HDFC bank, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Energy and Tata Motors were among the gainers at initial trade Wednesday.