New Delhi, September 5
Two days into the job and new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan is inspiring fresh confidence and excitement into the markets and industry. The markets rallied 412 points to a three-week high on Thursday after Rajan announced a slew of steps to boost the rupee and revive economic growth.

The rupee, which had been mauled in the recent weeks, also gained on the back of Rajan's measures and went up to 65.5 against the dollar in intra-day trade from Wednesday’s close of 67.07.

On the flip side, gold which strengthens on weak economic conditions, suffered the steepest fall in a week today, falling Rs 1,250 to Rs 30,950 per 10 grams here on heavy sell-off by stockists as equity markets and rupee recovered after RBI’s fresh measures.

The BSE Sensex closed at 18,979 points, a rise of 412.21 points or 2.22 per cent. It was at the highest level since August 14, when it closed at 19,367.59. On Wednesday, the Sensex had gained 333 points on investor optimism about the new RBI Governor. The gains were led by banking stocks, especially the licence aspirants, realty, consumer durable and PSU stocks, while information technology stocks declined.

Anindya Banerjee, currency analyst, Kotak Securities, said the rupee benefitted with a slew of constructive announcements from the new RBI Governor.

Welcoming Rajan’s maiden speech yesterday, CII president Kris Gopalakrishnan said the pro-reforms approach adopted in the speech sent a strong signal that the RBI would take significant steps to re-invigorate growth.