Sensex soars 308 points; Capital goods, consumer durables stocks rally

Domestic markets jumped over 1.6 per cent in the afternoon session on heavy FII inflows as the rupee recovered from its all-time low coupled with positive global cues.

Domestic sentiment turned better after the rupee opened sharply higher at 66.90 from its previous close of 68.80 after RBI announced fresh measures to check the rupee's free fall amid firm global cues.

Besides, covering up of pending short positions by speculators as today being the last day of current month’s settlement in the derivatives segment supported the rise in stock prices.

At 12.45 p.m., the 30-share BSE index Sensex was up 307.91 points (1.71 per cent) at 18,304.06 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 86 points (1.63 per cent) at 5,371.

All BSE sectoral indices were trading in the green. Among them, capital goods, consumer durables, metal and banking indices found investors' support and were up 2.16 per cent, 1.91 per cent, 1.77 per cent and 1.5 per cent.

Among 30-share Sensex, Sesa Goa, HDFC, Hindalco, Bharti Airtel and L&T were the top five gainers, while the top five losers were Coal India, Infosys, Wipro, GAIL and Hero MotoCorp.

Asian shares rose from a two-month low tracking overnight cues from the Wall Street.

Wall Street had ended higher on Wednesday as energy shares rallied on higher oil prices as the United States and its allies moved closer to take military action against Syria.

But US President Barack Obama has said that he has not yet decided whether to attack Syria in the aftermath of the Assad regime allegedly using chemical weapons against its own people on August 21.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 48.38 points or 0.33 per cent to 14,824.51. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 4.48 points or 0.27 per cent at 1,634.96. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 14.83 points or 0.41 per cent to 3,593.35.

Japan's Nikkei rose 121.25 points or 0.91 per cent to 13,459.70, Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 119.77 points or 0.56 per cent to 21,644.40 and S&P/ASX 200 was up 5.25 points or 0.1 per cent at 5,092.41.

Investors are keeping an eye on West Asia after the US and the UK had yesterday said that they are prepared to take military action against Syria, without authorisation from the United Nations Security Council, after concluding that the regime was responsible for a chemical weapons attack against civilians on August 21.

They are also awaiting a report on US economic growth that may give signs on when the Federal Reserve will start scaling back its $85-billion-a-month bond-buying programme.