Markets extend gains, Nifty firm above 5,600

Markets notched up gains in the late-morning session this Friday on back og buying witnessed in pharmaceutical companies and banking shares.

Trading was, however, on a cautious note as investors preferred to remain on the side-lines ahead of the long weekend coupled with US Non-Farm Payrolls data tomorrow that may depict the health of world’s biggest economy.

At 11:40AM, the 30-share Sensex rose 166 points at 19,142  and the 50-share Nifty gained 42 points at 5,635 levels.

The broader markets traded firm with mid-caps and small-caps gaining nearly 0.4-0.6 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 1,920 stocks traded, 1,077 stocks advanced while 729 stocks declined on the BSE.

RUPEE

The rupee weakened on Friday, giving up some of its 1.6% gain against the dollar in the previous session, as some of the euphoria that greeted the debut of a new Reserve Bank of India governor dissipated ahead of key US monthly jobs data later in the day.

At 11:35AM, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 65.92 per dollar against the yesterday’s close of 66.01 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.


GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks dropped, snapping a six-day advance and paring the regional benchmark index’s biggest weekly gain since July, as investors await the monthly American jobs report.

Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.5%  at 13,860, Singapore’s Straits Times gained 0.2% at 3,045, China’s Shanghai Composite index rose 1% at 2,140 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.2% to 22,632 today.


STOCK MOVERS

Domestically, the key sectoral indices gainers included banks, capital goods, IT, healthcare, pharmaceuticals while auto, oil & gas, FMCG, metal sectors lead the drop on the BSE.

The gainers included counters such as ICICI Bank rising 4.4%, Cipla gained 3.4%, Wipro added 2.5% while Larsen & Toubro was up 2% on the BSE.

The laggards were Tata Power declined 3%, Mahindra & Mahindra fell 2.9%, Coal India was down 2.7% while Reliance Industries declined 1.7% the BSE.

The key notable movers included counters such as Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) that is locked in upper circuit for eleven straight trading sessions, up 5% at Rs 476 on BSE,  has been double in less than a month.

The stock hit all-time low of Rs 238 on August 19, after the National Spot Exchange (NSEL), a group company, suspended electronic trading.

Wockhardt has soared nearly 18% to Rs 546 in early morning deals after the promoters purchased equity shares worth Rs 10 crore from the open market.