Investors richer by ₹8.52 lakh crore in two days of market rally

Investors' wealth surged ₹8.52 lakh crore in two days of market rally, with the benchmark Sensex climbing nearly 2% on Thursday alone.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex jumped 1,436.30 points or 1.83%, its best single-day gain in more than a month, to settle at 79,943.71 on Thursday. During the day, it soared 1,525.46 points, or 1.94%, to 80,032.87.

On Wednesday, the benchmark gauge had climbed 368.40 points, or 0.47%, to settle at 78,507.41.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms surged ₹8,52,239.27 crore to ₹4,50,47,345.71 crore ($5.25 trillion) in two days.

"While markets failed to deliver a Christmas rally over the past few weeks, the New Year has provided strong optimism in the first two days with Sensex touching the psychological 80,000-mark on the back of broad-based short-covering.

"Gains in banking, IT, auto and metal triggered a major rally despite concerns in the currency market which saw the rupee scaling fresh lows amid rising crude oil prices and subdued growth," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

From the 30 Sensex blue-chip firms, Bajaj Finserv jumped nearly 8% while Bajaj Finance soared 6.50%. Maruti, Titan, Mahindra, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Tech, Zomato, UltraTech Cement and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the other major gainers.

Sun Pharma emerged as the only laggard.

The BSE midcap gauge jumped 0.89% and smallcap index climbed 0.68%.

All sectoral indices ended in positive territory. Auto surged the most by 3.66%, followed by BSE-focused IT (2.34%), IT (2.31%), consumer discretionary (2.24%), teck (2.19%), consumer durables (2.02%) and commodities (1.41%).

As many as 2,395 stocks advanced while 1,574 declined and 117 remained unchanged on the BSE.