Photographs: Reuters Aastha Agnihotri in Mumbai
Markets ended firm with benchmark index Sensex regaining 20,000 spot this Wednesday on back of buying witnessed in financials after country’s trade deficit narrowed to a two-and-a-half-year low in September.
The deficit for the month stood at $6.7 billion, the lowest level since March 2011, compared with $10.9 billion in August, the commerce ministry said today.
Mirroring the optimism, the 30-share Sensex rose 265.65 points to end at 20,249.26 and the 50-share Nifty gained 79.05 points at 6,007.45 levels.
The key trigger for markets now will be Infosys quarterly results this Friday that will kick start the earnings season for July-September quarter.
A heavily-bet Infosys could see large volume pick-up but very little price volatility, said analysts.
Meanwhile, global risk appetite was frail as US shutdown entered its second week, with an October 17 deadline for raising the borrowing limit approaching.
The broader markets ended higher with mid-caps and small-caps adding 0.5-0.8 per cent on the BSE.
The market breadth was positive. Out of 2,608 stocks traded, 1,409 stocks advanced while 1,030 stocks declined on the BSE.
RUPEE
Rupee continued to trade sharply higher than the session low of 62.30 per USD earlier in the day.
At 3:50PM, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 61.81 per dollar against the yesterday’s close of 61.80 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.
GLOBAL MARKETS
Asian stocks traded mixed as US lawmakers wrangle over the debt limit and partial government shutdown.
Japan’s Nikkei rose 1% to 14,037, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.6% to 23,033, China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.6% to 2,211 while Singapore’s Straits Times was up 0.3% to 3,154.
European markets traded positively. France’s CAC gained 0.6% to 4,156, Germany’s DAX rose 0.3% to 8,577 while UK’s FTSE was tad down 0.04% to 6,363.
STOCK MOVERS
Domestically, barring consumer durable index, rest all gained with healthcare, capital goods, banks, realty, oil & gas, power and IT topping the charts on the BSE.
The laggards were Sesa Sterlite falling 1.1%, Mahindra & Mahindra dropped 1%, Wipro shed 1.6% while Maruti Suzuki was down 0.6% on the BSE.
The gainers were Sun Pharma surged 5.7%, Bajaj Auto gained 2.8%, HDFC Bank rose 2.7% while Tata Steel and Jindal Steel were up 2.4% each on the BSE.
The key notable movers included counters such as Sun Pharmaceuticals which surged nearly 6%, surpasses the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and telecom major Bharti Airtel in overall market capitalization (m-cap) ranking.
Lupin gained 3% on BSE, after the overseas investors raise their holding in the pharmaceutical company third quarter in a row.
PTC India rose 5% after the state-owned electric utilities firm said that it has received outstanding dues of Rs 778 crore from UP Power Corporation.
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