Post Session: Quick Review

Buying activity which woke up in dying hour of trade mainly helped the benchmarks to end Friday’s session at day’s high point. Key indices made cautious start and traded slightly in green on the back of encouraging industrial growth data. The Central Statistics Office’s data showed that India's industrial output rose 4.3% in July, as against 2% in June. After that, markets traded flat with negative bias, as traders turned cautious with government data showing that consumer price index-based inflation (CPI) for August crept up slightly to 3.21% year-on-year, compared with 3.15% in July, driven by a sharp rise in food prices. Traders also got wary with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) statement that India's economic growth is much weaker than expected, attributing the reasons for corporate and environmental regulatory uncertainty and lingering weaknesses in some non-bank financial companies.

However, local barometer gauges witnessed sudden spike in final hour of trade, taking support from commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that government would soon announce guidelines for extending foreign exchange credit to exporters. Such foreign exchange loans will be made available to exporters at very competitive rates, likely to be lower than even 4%. Sentiments also got a boost with reports that the Reserve Bank of India is expected to go for a further rate cut in the next month's monetary policy review as inflation is expected to pan out in line with the central bank's projection.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly higher on Friday, while European markets were trading mostly in green as investors welcomed positive developments on the Sino-US trade front and a sufficiently dovish European Central Bank (ECB) rate decision. Back home, Footwear stocks were in focus with Council for Leather Exports (CLE) stating that huge export opportunities are present in Russia for domestic leather and footwear industry. It said Russia has imported leather and footwear worth $3.9 billion in 2018, and India's exports to that country stood at only $52.6 million.

The BSE Sensex ended at 37410.95, up by 306.67 points or 0.83% after trading in a range of 37000.09 and 37412.61. There were 25 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.40%, while Small cap index was up by 0.78%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.87%, PSU up by 2.02%, Consumer Durables up by 1.98%, Energy up by 1.89% and Metal up by 1.54%, while Healthcare down by 0.38%, Telecom down by 0.23% and FMCG down by 0.01% were the few losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 2.99%, ICICI Bank up by 2.79%, ONGC up by 2.19%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.05% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.80%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.16%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.96%, HDFC Bank down by 0.66%, ITC down by 0.33% and Yes Bank down by 0.15% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that India's economic growth is much weaker than expected mainly on account of corporate and environmental regulatory uncertainty and lingering weakness in some non-bank financial companies. It added the risks to the outlook are tilted to the downside.

IMF has cut its projection for India's economic growth by 0.3 percentage points to 7 per cent for the current financial year (FY20) owing to the weaker-than-expected outlook for the domestic demand. The growth is expected to rise to 7.2 per cent points in FY21, down by the projected growth rate of 7.5 in the earlier report.

The economic growth slowed to a seven-year low to 5 per cent in first quarter of current financial year (Q1FY20) from 8 per cent a year ago. The slowdown was largely due to a sharp dip in the manufacturing sector and agriculture output. The previous low was recorded at 4.9 per cent in April to June 2012-13. Consumer demand and private investment have weakened amid global trade frictions and dampening business sentiment.

The CNX Nifty ended at 11081.90, up by 99.10 points or 0.90% after trading in a range of 10945.75 and 11083.85. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 6.65%, Indian Oil Corp. up by 4.66%, Titan Co up by 3.52%, GAIL India up by 3.10% and ICICI Bank up by 2.87%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 2.14%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.27%, Sun Pharma down by 1.15%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.89% and HDFC Bank down by 0.65% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in green; France’s CAC rose 26.82 points or 0.48% to 5,669.68 and Germany’s DAX increased 55.29 points or 0.45% to 12,465.54, while UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 1.56 points or 0.02% to 7,343.11.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Friday as investors welcomed positive developments on the Sino-US trade front and a sufficiently dovish European Central Bank (ECB) rate decision. US President Trump said he would consider an interim deal with China but would prefer a full agreement as the world's two largest economies look to end a widening trade war. The ECB cut its key interest rate and launched a sweeping package of bond purchases, bolstering expectations the Fed will make a modest quarter-point cut at its meeting next week. Hong Kong shares ended higher as investors cheered signs of a breakthrough in the year-long US-China tariff war. Japanese shares ended higher as the safe-haven yen continued to weaken following the European Central Bank's decision to resume its quantitative easing. Meanwhile, markets in China, South Korea and Taiwan were closed for public holidays.