Photographs: Reuters Jinsy Mathew in Mumbai
Markets closed for the week on a strong note on renewed interest from the domestic institutional investors who have been net sellers thus far.
The gains came in ahead of the second quarter GDP and fiscal deficit for Apr-Oct period which is likely to be announced after market hours.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is likely to have grown sub-5% for the fourth straight quarter in the July-September of the current financial year, prolonging the wait for economic recovery.
The Q2 GDP data will be released in the evening today.
The GDP is likely to grow in the range of 4.4-4.8%, according to projections made by various independent economists and research firms.
At close, the Sensex was up 257 points or 1.25% at 20,792 and the Nifty gained 84 points or 1.4% to trade at 6,175.
The ones leading the gains in today’s trade were ITC, L&T and banks like ICICI Bank, SBI and HDFC Bank.
Meanwhile, broader markets which have been outperformers over the past few sessions, lagged marginally in today's trade.
The mid and smallcap indices were up 0.8% each as compared to the 1.3% uptick seen on the BSE benchmark index.
Rupee
The rupee was trading at 62.53 versus its close of 62.41/42 as lack of dollar inflows due to US holidays for Thanksgiving and month-end demand from oil companies hurt.
Traders expect the pair to find good resistance at around 62.55 levels, which, if broken, can take it higher to 62.70-75 levels.
Global Markets
Japanese stocks faltered slightly on Friday after hitting their highest closing level in nearly six years in the previous session, but still reveled in the sliding yen to record their best November performance since 2005.
Investors nibbled at other regional equities, however, with the MSCI Asia-Pacific outside Japan index edging up 0.2% after reaching its highest close in a week on Thursday.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei dropped 0.4%, though it was still up 9.3% this month as the yen slumped against the euro and dollar.
European markets opened firm after rating agency Standard & Poor's raised its outlook on Spain to stable from negative and affirmed its BBB-minus rating. CAC and DAX were flat with a positive bias while FTSE was up 0.2%.
Sectors and Stocks
All the sectoral indices closed in the green with gains of atleast 0.1%.
The BSE Bankex was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE, up 2.2% followed by PSU, Capital Goods, Metal, Realty, Power, FMCG and Oil and Gas indices up 1-2%.
Teck, Health Care, IT, Consumer Durables and Auto indices added 0.1-0.9%.
The only losers among the Sensex-30 were auto majors Mahindra & Mahindra and Hero MotoCorp down 1% each along with Wipro and NTPC down 0.5% and 0.2% respectively.
Sesa Sterlite, BHEL, ICICI Bank and SBI up 3-4% were the top gainers for the day.
Cipla, Gail india, ITC, Tata Power, ONGC, Dr Reddys Lab, L&T, HDFC Bank and Bajaj Auto up 1-2.6% were the other prominent gainers.
In individual stocks, SRF was locked in upper circuit of 20% at Rs 207 on back of heavy volumes on the bourses. The stock opened at Rs 171 and has seen over multiple-fold jump in trading volumes.
BF Utilities, Career Point, Shalimar Paints and Transformers and Rectifiers were down in the range of 2.5-5% after the stock exchanges shifted them to trade-to-trade segment as part of a surveillance review to safeguard the interests of investors in the capital market.
Tata Elxsi was up2.3% at Rs 299, extending its month long rally on the bourses, after reporting robust performance for the quarter ended September 2013.
NHPC closed higher by 2% at Rs 18.15 after the company’s share buyback program of 1,230 million shares at a price of Rs 19.25 per share on a proportionate basis through the Tender Offer Process began today.
The market breadth was very positive on account of broad based buying. 1,460 stocks advanced while 1,033 stocks declined on the BSE.
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