Dalal Street rejoices, Sensex soars 88 points

Markets across Asia traded higher on prospects of Bush’s second-term at the White House. Benchmark indices rose half a per cent in Hong Kong and 1 per cent in Singapore. Stock gained 1.8 per cent in Taiwan, 1.5 per cent in South Korea and 0.9 per cent in Australia, where the market hit the latest in a long string of record highs. The US dollar gained ground in overseas market. The euro lost half a per cent against the US dollar.

The mood in the market remained upbeat as President George Bush maintained a lead over his rival John Kerry after a tightly-fought election on Tuesday.

‘‘Bush is deemed more of a supporter of free trade and unopposed to outsourcing. His re-election will be good for Indian software companies,’’ said BSE dealer Pawan Dharnidharka.

However, gold prices tumbled by Rs 55 per 10 grams with the standard metal (99.5 purity) closing at Rs 6,340 and the pure gold (99.9 purity) ending at 6,375 on heavy stockists’ offerings in view of lower overseas advices following the dollar’s strength.

However, it’s bad for the oil market. International oil prices, which had fallen below the $50 a barrel mark earlier this week, bounced back above $ 50 a barrel on Asian trades today.