HDFC twins shine: Banking counters stay buoyed up, Sensex up 446 points

“The domestic market rallied, primarily supported by banking and finance stocks, which received a boost from the merger updates from HDFC. In the meantime, global trends were mixed as the Chinese market showed signs of recovery, driven by hopes of additional policy stimulus, whereas European markets traded with declines in response to hawkish commentary from the president of the European Central Bank,” said Vinod Nair, head-research, Geojit Financial Services.

Six of the seven top gainers on the Sensex were banking stocks, led by State Bank of India. HDFC Bank and HDFC made the biggest contributions to the index gains. They rose over a per cent each after HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh said that the merger between the two financial sector behemoths would become, effective July 1.

Benchmark indices posted their biggest single-day gain in more than a week amid a rally in banking shares. After three days of decline, the S&P BSE Sensex rose 446 points, or 0.7 per cent — the most since June 16 — to end at 63,416. The National Stock Exchange Nifty50 gained 126 points, or 0.7 per cent, to close at 18,817.

The BSE Bankex, a gauge for the performance of banking stocks, rose 1.2 per cent. Most global markets were mixed as traders awaited the next set of data and comments from policymakers to get a hint of the interest rate and economic growth outlook.