Sensex rebounds 209 points on GST Council's finalisation of tax rates

Markets made a somersault of sorts on Friday as the benchmark Sensex rebounded 209 points to 30,643 on the GST Council's finalisation of tax rates for bulk of the items except six categories.

A firming trend at other Asian markets tracking rebound on the Wall Street on positive data supported the indices to recoup most of  Thursday's lost ground. The BSE Sensex recovered 208.82 points, or 0.69%, to 30,643.61. The gauge had declined by 223.98 points on Thursday.

Similarly, the broader 50-issue NSE Nifty rose by 57.45 points, or 0.61%, to quote at 9,486.90.

Foodgrains and common-use products like hair oil, soaps and toothpaste will cost less from July 1 when GST is due to be rolled out.

Coal India rallied 2.62%, followed by NTPC and PowerGrid. The goods and services tax (GST) on coal has been brought down to 5% form the current tax incidence of 11.69%, making electricity generation cheaper.

The largest lender SBI rose 1.98% to Rs 308.95 ahead of its earnings to be announced later in the day. Other gainers that supported the recovery were ITC Ltd, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, Hero MotoCorp, Lupin, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, Adani Ports and Reliance Industries, rising by up to 4.44%.

In the Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.30%, Shanghai Composite rose 0.12% and Japan's Nikkei gained 0.19% in early deals on Friday.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.27% higher on Thursday.