Post Session: Quick Review

Extending their winning streak for fourth straight session, Indian frontline indices have vivaciously rallied over a percent on the last trading day of the week, almost attaining the thirty week highs and conquered the psychological 8,150 and 26,600 levels on their northbound journey. Bullishness seemed to be returning to the markets as investors aggressively piled up positions not only in heavyweight stocks but in broader markets as well. Sentiments remained up-beat since start as key bourses opened with gap on upside and there appeared not even an iota of profit booking in the session as the benchmarks managed to fervently gain from strength to strength as investors continued hunt for fundamentally strong stocks.

Sentiments remained up-beat with the global rating agency Fitch in its Global Economic outlook stating that India's economic growth will accelerate to 8 percent by 2018-19 fiscal as gradual implementation of structural reforms will contribute to higher growth. Improving prospects of an economic recovery and forecast of a better-than-average monsoon too uplifted sentiments. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on completion of his government’s two year in office has said that his government has undertaken maximum reforms since coming to power in May 2014 and is expecting the long-pending GST bill to get passed this year.

Domestic benchmarks traced sanguine sentiments across the globe as the Asian markets settled higher after US data continued to put the economy in a positive light, while the dollar was on the defensive against major peers. However, European markets were trading mostly in red in early deals on Friday.

Back home, staying with its rising streak for the third day, the rupee appreciated 18 paise to 66.99 against the dollar at the time of equity markets closing on increased selling of the US currency by exporters and banks amid higher foreign inflows. Some support also came with report that foreign direct investment (FDI) into India increased by 16.5% to $2.46 billion in March this year. The FDI inflows were at $2.11 billion in the same month of last year.

On sectoral front, stocks related to infra counter rallied, as the Centre has approved an investment of over Rs 5,530 crore for providing basic infrastructure in over 110 cities across six states under AMRUT scheme for the current fiscal. On the flip side, sugar stocks edged lower after India’s biggest sugar producing state imposed limits on the quantity of sugar that traders can keep as the authorities try to arrest rising prices of the sweetener.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index -- Nifty -- rose by around ninety points to end above the psychological 8,150 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex -- surged by around two hundred and ninety points to finish above the psychological 26,600 mark. However, broader markets outperformed benchmarks and ended the session with a gain of around a percent.

The market breadth remained in the favour off advances, as there were 1,406 shares on the gaining side against 1,170 shares on the losing side while 195 shares remain unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex ended at 26653.60, up by 286.92 points or 1.09% after trading in a range of 26405.28 and 26677.43. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.39%, while Small cap index up by 0.57%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.66%, Healthcare up by 2.54%, Energy up by 2.18%, PSU up by 1.65% and Realty up by 1.51%, while FMCG down by 0.05% was the lone losing index on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 9.28%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 5.87%, Adani Ports &Special up by 3.35%, Reliance Industries up by 2.59% and Bajaj Auto up by 2.39%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.73%, Axis Bank down by 0.91%, ITC down by 0.73%, NTPC down by 0.60% and BHEL down by 0.43% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), praising the development work taken by the government in last two years has said that in two years the NDA government has strategically navigated the Indian economy to all-round stability. It has undertaken big bang structural reforms, including more power in the hands of states, establishment of NITI Aayog and empowerment of markets.

Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of CII said that for investors, critical achievements of the government relate to inflation control, more public investment in infrastructure, social security, fiscal management and tax administration. Banerjee pointing out the highest ever inflow of FDI at $55 billion in 2015-16 said that the strong emphasis on ease of doing business is delivering results.

CII director-general has also said that “We are optimistic that India’s ease of doing business ranking can rise to among the top 50 from the current 130 within the next two years with sustained micro-level actions.”

Recently, the industry body had said that after two years of government in office now focus should be on building political consensus for passage of long- pending Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill and on expediting the non-legislative reforms.

The CNX Nifty ended at 8156.65, up by 87.00 points or 1.08% after trading in a range of 8077.05 and 8164.20. There were 39 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 9.19%, SBI up by 6.38%, Sun Pharma up by 5.85%, Adani Ports & Special up by 3.73% and Reliance Industries up by 2.94%. On the flip side, Tata Power down by 1.43%, ONGC down by 1.41%, Axis Bank down by 1.27%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.18% and ITC down by 0.87% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 12.22 points or 0.12% to 10,260.49 and France’s CAC slipped 6.56 points or 0.15% to 4,506.08, while UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 3.04 points or 0.05% to 6,268.69.

Asian equity markets ended mostly higher on Friday, even as oil prices dipped and data showed growth in profits at Chinese industrial firms slowed in April compared to the previous month. Industrial profits grew 4.2 percent year-over-year, much slower than the 11.1 percent expansion seen in March. Japanese stocks ended at a one-month high, amid the growing prospect that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would delay by several years a sales tax hike scheduled to go into effect next April. Hong Kong shares closed at a three-week high, buoyed by hopes that Beijing will soon expand cross-border investment opportunities between Hong Kong and China. However, Chinese shares ended lower on growth worries after a government report showed that China's industrial profits increased at a slower pace in April.