Benchmarks extend gains; trade near intra-day high level

Indian equity benchmarks extended early gains and continued firm trade in the afternoon session, hovering near intra-day high level on increased buying by funds and retail investors. The December derivative contracts started on a better note and the sentiments were on optimistic note after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s said that the government's demonetisation move is going to have 'a positive impact on the economy, including GDP'. Jaitley also said there will be a positive impact 'because a lot of money that operates in the shadowy economy will now become part of the banking structure' and banks will have a lot more money to support the economy. Besides, a firm trend in the Asian markets after the relentless rally in the dollar paused, on account of Thanksgiving break in the United States too supported the rise. Meanwhile, the Indian rupee climbed against the U.S. dollar, following suspected intervention by the Reserve Bank of India to contain excessive fall in the currency.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green on Friday as oil prices held steady ahead of next week's OPEC meeting and the dollar pulled back from a 13-1/2-year high against a basket of currencies. Back home, in scrip specific development, SAIL and JSW Steel gained after the government slapped safeguard duty on import of certain steel products.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26146.42, up by 286.25 points or 1.11% after trading in a range of 25874.45 and 26152.84. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.00%, while Small cap index was up by 1.54%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 4.24%, TECK up by 3.54%, Metal up by 1.61%, Power up by 1.54% and Realty up by 1.38%, while there were no losing indices on BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 4.55%, TCS up by 4.37%, Wipro up by 3.16%, GAIL India up by 3.14% and Tata Steel up by 2.81%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 0.81%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.81%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.69%, SBI down by 0.55% and Reliance Industries down by 0.34% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, for smooth traffic movement across all National Highways, the government has extended the suspension of fee toll collection till December 1 midnight.  The decision has been taken to avoid any inconvenience to highway users following the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.

After the announcement of demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, the government postponed fee collection at all toll plazas on National Highways till the midnight of November 11. This was subsequently extended thrice and the last extension was to end on November 24 midnight.

The transport and highways ministry has given instructions about the extension of the toll suspension date to all concessionaires, including BOT (build-operate-transfer), OMT (operate-maintain-transfer) operators and other fee collection agencies.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8065.85, up by 100.35 points or 1.26% after trading in a range of 7976.75 and 8072.15. There were 40 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 4.87%, Tech Mahindra up by 4.82%, HCL Tech. up by 4.50%, TCS up by 4.34% and Yes Bank up by 3.26%. On the flip side, ACC down by 1.31%, SBI down by 0.73%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.69%, Bharti Infratel down by 0.69% and ICICI Bank down by 0.64% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.19 points or 0.01% to 1,624.40, KOSPI Index rose 3.2 points or 0.16% to 1,974.46, Jakarta Composite gained 5.34 points or 0.1% to 5,112.96, Taiwan Weighted increased 6.96 points or 0.08% to 9,159.07, Shanghai Composite was up by 7.21 points or 0.22% to 3,248.94, Nikkei 225 added 47.81 points or 0.26% to 18,381.22 and Hang Seng increased 120.11 points or 0.53% to 22,728.60.