Indian share markets witnessed buying momentum in today’s session after exit polls predicted a BJP victory in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex closed higher by 216 points and the NSE Nifty finished higher by 81 points. The S&P BSE Mid Cap finished up by 1% while S&P BSE Small Cap finished up by 1.4%. Gains were largely seen in metal sector, consumer durables sector and realty sector.

Rupee was trading at Rs 64.09 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 57.30 at the time of writing.

Asian stock markets finished broadly lower today with shares in Hong Kong leading the region. The Hang Seng is down 1.09% while China’s Shanghai Composite is off 0.80% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 is lower by 0.62%. European markets are lower today with shares in Germany off the most. The DAX is down 0.39% while France’s CAC 40 is off 0.36% and London’s FTSE 100 is lower by 0.07%.

Meanwhile the European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged and upgraded their growth forecasts substantially. They now see the economy expanding by 2.4% this year from 2.2% and raised their 2018 GDP forecast to 2.3% from 1.8%.

These higher growth projections are consistent with the IFO forecast and the latest increase in Eurozone PMIs. The ECB also boosted next year’s inflation forecast but left this year’s projection unchanged. The euro popped on the back of Mario Draghi’s optimism but reversed course halfway through his speech after the central bank President admitted that headline inflation is likely to slow in the coming months.

While Draghi’s message was more hawkish than the market anticipated, the main takeaway is that even though the economy is improving, they have no plans to raise interest rates anytime soon.

Draghi repeated that rates would remain at present level well past the end of QE, which puts them behind the Fed’s 2018 tightening schedule and explains why EUR/US$ dropped below 1.18. The Swiss National Bank also left interest rates unchanged and upgraded their growth and inflation forecasts. With that in mind, they still want to see the Franc lower and warned of currency intervention as needed.