Sensex gains 65 points; Nifty ends above 8,100

Benchmark share indices snapped their three-day losing streak to end marginally higher as investors adopted a wait-and-watch stance ahead of macro economic data due for release later on Friday.

The government will release data on consumer price inflation for August 2014 and industrial production for July 2014 later today.

The 30-share Sensex ended higher by 65 points at 27,061 and the 50-share Nifty gained 20 points at 8,106.

The market breadth in BSE ended positive with 1,736 shares advancing and 1,318 shares declining.

Meanwhile, India recorded its heaviest spell of monsoon rains in 2014 in the past week, logging in surplus for the second straight week, raising hopes of a delayed retreat of the four-month season.

Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth a net Rs 433.55 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data

INDIAN RUPEE

At 15:30, the rupee was trading at 60.74 per dollar versus Thursday's close of 60.9250/9350.

The Indian unit had fallen to 61.03 in early trade. Huge dollar selling by custodian banks is seen, say traders.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Japanese share prices rose for the fifth straight session on Friday to end at an eight-month high, with exporters leading the gains on the yen's weakness.

Japan's Nikkei share average rose 0.3% to 15,948.29 points, its highest close since Jan. 8.

For the week, it gained 1.8%, outperforming most other share markets.

The broader Topix gained 0.2% to a six-year closing high, while the new JPX-Nikkei Index 400 rose 0.2%.

Investors will look to next week's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting for fresh guidance on US interest rates. At the end of a two-day meeting on 16-17 September 2014, the FOMC is widely expected to announce cut in Fed's monthly bond-buying program by another $10 billion to $15

billion, staying on track to end the program at its October meeting.

The Fed is likely to raise short-term interest rates next year from their current near-zero levels, where they have been since December 2008.

SECTORS & STOCKS

BSE Auto, Healthcare and Consumer Durables indices gained by almost 1% each. However, BSE Power and Capital Goods indices slipped between 1-1.4%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla, Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Moto, Sesa Sterlite, HDFC and ITC.

Cipla was the top Sensex gainer, up over 6%.

Shares of Maruti Suzuki gained after the company chairman said that double-digit sales growth is expected this current year.

Tata Motors surged by over 1%. Macquarie raises price target for the stock to 700 rupees from 540 rupees and says it expects Tata's earnings to double over three years from FY2014 to FY2017.

On the losing side, Hindalco, Sun Pharma, NTPC, Tata Power and L&T slipped between 1-2%.

Shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Ranbaxy Laboratories slumped over 2% extending their previous day’s fall on reports of drug regulator, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducting a surprise inspection of the Sun Pharma’s manufacturing plant at Halol in Gujarat.

Among other shares, Oracle Financial Services Software surged nearly 7% after the Board of Directors of the company approved payment of interim dividend of Rs 485 per equity share of face value of Rs 5 each of the company.

Shares of Snowman Logistics witnessed a huge jump of 68% at Rs 79 jump on debut. Snowman priced its IPO at Rs 47.

Steel Strips Wheels (SSWL) surged 10% after the company said it is increasing the production capacity by 1.5 million wheels annually to cater to increasing demand from OEMs.