Sensex, Nifty Extend Gains For Third Day

(RTTNews) - Indian shares rallied on Thursday to extend gains for a third straight session as optimism around a possible Israel-Iran ceasefire prevailed and the dollar weakened on speculation that U.S. interest-rate cuts may come sooner than expected.

The U.S. dollar index hit a three-year low, raising expectations of increased overseas inflows into Asia's third-largest economy.

Also helping boost sentiment, oil consolidated near two-week lows after seeing a tentative rebound from the biggest two-day decline since 2022 on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, investors shrugged off reports that U.S. President Donald Trump was considering replacing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as early as September or October.

Frustrated at the slow pace of interest rate cuts, Trump is thinking of replacing Fed Chair Jerome Powell before the November elections, reports say.

The benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex surged 1,000.36 points, or 1.21 percent, to 83,755.87 while the broader NSE Nifty index closed at 25,549, up 304.25 points, or 1.21 percent, from its previous close.

Both indices are now trading nearly 2 percent below their September peaks. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes edged up by 0.6 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively - underperforming their larger peers.

The market breadth was strong on the BSE, with 2,097 shares rising while 1,900 shares declined and 156 shares closed unchanged.

Among the top gainers, NTPC, Bajaj FinServ, HDFC Bank, Eternal, Adani Ports, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance and Tata Steel jumped 2-3 percent. Defense stocks such as Sika Interplant Systems and Data Patterns surged 3-4 percent after NATO members agreed on a higher defence spending target.