Markets firm up on hopes of improvement in Q2 GDP

Markets firmed up on Friday led by financials on hopes of improvement in economic growth in the Jul-Sep qtr

Markets opened marginally higher on Friday led by financials on hopes of an improvement in economic growth during the Jul-Sep quarter. The market wide roll-over was 82.41% vs 80.45% last month.

Meanwhile, investors are eagerly waiting the fiscal deficit data for Apr-Oct and the third quarter GDP data to be released later today.

At 9:40AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 242 points at 20,777 and the 50-share Nifty was up 77 points at 6,169.

The rupee was trading marginally higher in early trades on Friday tracking gains in the stock markets. The rupee was trading at 62.28 compared with Thursday close of 62.41.

On Thursday, the rupee weakened for the first time in five sessionsas heavy month-end dollar demand from oil refiners and losses in other Asian currencies hurt, but gains in domestic shares prevented a sharper fall.

Asian stocks retreated from their highs after investors turned cautious and booked profits after recent gains. The Hang Seng was up 0.3% while Shanghai Composite was trading flat with positive bias. Straits Times and Nikkei were 0.2-0.4% each.

European stocks also ended higher on Thursday after a business and consumer survey by the European Commission showed an uptick in November compared with October. The CAC-40, DAX and FTSE ended up 0.1-0.4% each.

BSE Bankex was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE up,  1.3% followed by Metal, Power, FMCG, Oil and Gas and Healthcare indices up 0.8-1.2% each.

ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were up over 1.2% contributing the most to Sensex gains. SBI was up 0.7% and HDFC was up 0.3%. Index heavyweights ITC and Reliance Ind were up 0.6% each.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap were up over 0.4% each.

The market breadth was positive with 770 gainers and 224 losers on the BSE.