Sensex reclaims 27,000-mark, zooms over 250 points as voting begins in Britain's EU referendum

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The benchmark BSE Sensex recovered over 250 points in afternoon trade Thursday amid expectations that Britain would vote to stay in the European Union.

Voting got underway in Britain`s referendum on EU membership with most opinion polls putting the "Leave" and "Remain" camps neck-and-neck.

Bookmakers, however, have consistently given a greater probability towards Britain staying in the bloc rather than leaving in a "Brexit" scenario. The result is due on Friday

The 30-share index last quoted 214.35 points or 0.80 percent up at 26,980 after moving in range of 27,060.98- 26,736.52. The gauge had lost 101.27 points in the previous two sessions.

The NSE index Nifty was also trading 62.20 points or 0.76 percent higher at 8,265.90.

Meanwhile, RBI yesterday said it is keeping a watch on Brexit developments and will take necessary steps including liquidity support to ensure orderly conditions in the financial markets.

Sebi and stock exchanges have also beefed up surveillance mechanism to deal with any excessive volatility in the run up to the 'Brexit' referendum whose outcome is keenly awaited by the investors.

Elsewhere in Europe, the pan-European STOXX 600 and the FTSEurofirst 300 were up by 0.3 percent. They were set for their fifth straight day of gains and both were around a two-week high.Britain`s FTSE 100 equity index was also up 0.5 percent.