Markets continue northward journey; Rupee cracks

The partially convertible rupee was trading at 60.11/12 per dollar at 2:00 pm, compared with its previous close of 59.67/68.

Markets continued to trade higher in the afternoon session this Friday after Infosys, the company with fifth-highest weightage on the Sensex defied analysts’ estimates and posted steady dollar revenue growth for fiscal 2014.

At 02:15PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 184 points at 19,860 and the 50-share Nifty rose 41 points at 5,975 levels.

Indian rupee, however, played spoilsport and extended its fall to below 60 per dollar levels in afternoon trade on Friday, weighed down by heavy demand for dollars from importers, particularly oil companies, according to dealers.

The partially convertible rupee was trading at 60.11/12 per dollar at 2:00 pm, compared with its previous close of 59.6750/6850.

Global risk appetite was firm on hopes that the US Federal Reserve will continue with its cheap money supply as policy makers continued to debate whether to pause bond-buying by the end of this year.

In Asia, Nikkei dropped 0.7% to 14,314, Singapore Straits Times rose 1.2% to 3,228, China’s Shanghai Composite index was up 1.8% at 2,045 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 2.2% to 21,371 today.

Domestically, investors are eyeing for the CPI and IIP data scheduled after market hours today.

Among the key sectoral indices, IT, technology, capital goods, power and healthcare gained with consumer durables, auto, realty, metal sectors dropped on the BSE.

The gainers included counters such as Infosys and TCS gaining 10% and 2.4% respectively, Wipro rose 2.2%, Dr Reddy’s Lab added 1.7% while Larsen & Toubro rose 1.6% on the BSE.

The laggards were Maruti Suzuki falling 3.2%, ONGC shedding 3%, Mahindra & Mahindra declined 1.7%, Hindalco Industries was down 1.5% on the BSE.

The key notable movers included counters such as Maruti Suzuki India is trading lower by 2% at Rs 1,476, extending its previous day’s 2.4% fall, on concerns of weakness in passenger vehicle demand.

Infosys has rallied nearly 10% on NSE, after the company has reported better-than-expected consolidated net profit at Rs 2,374 crore for the first quarter ended June 2013 (Q1).  Analyst on an average had expected profit of Rs 2,296 crore from the IT major.

The broader markets traded lower with mid-caps and small-caps falling nearly 0.2-0.3 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,231 stocks traded so far, 1,164 stocks declined while 934 advanced on the BSE.