Markets open cautiously higher, Q2 results weigh

Markets opened cautiously higher this Monday as investors remained focus on second-quarter corporate earnings with HDFC, country’s biggest private mortgage lender, set to unveil its results later today.

Caution also prevailed ahead of the US Federal Reserve policy meeting and RBI policy review next week.

At 09:20AM, the 30-share Sensex rose 48 points to trade at 20,937 and the 50-share Nifty was up 11 points at 6,200 levels.  

The Fed is expected to keep its bond-purchasing program until March next year because the shutdown probably slowed fourth-quarter US growth and also interrupted the flow of data, according to market experts. The policy is scheduled on October 30.

Meanwhile the Reserve Bank of India in its Oct 29 meet may hike interest rates to support currency after Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation climbed to 7-month high of 6.46 per cent.

The broader markets traded firm with mid-caps and small-caps rising 0.3 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 588 stocks traded, 450 stocks advanced while 107 stocks declined on the BSE.


RUPEE

The rupee opened negative this morning on back of month-end dollar demand by the importers.

At 09:20AM, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 61.47 per dollar against the Friday’s close of 61.27 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks rose, with the regional benchmark index extending its advance from a five-month high, amid speculation the Federal Reserve will delay stimulus cuts.

China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.5% to 2,204, Singapore’s Straits Times rose 0.1% to 3,195, Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.8% to 14,677, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.6% to 23,475.


STOCK MOVERS

Domestically, the key sectoral gainers were realty, PSU, metal, oil & gas while power and FMCG indices declined on the BSE.

The laggards were NTPC falling 0.4%, Coal India declined 0.3%, BHEL declined 0.2% while Infosys was down 0.2% on the BSE.  

The gainers were Bajaj Auto rising 0.9%, Sesa Sterlite added 0.9, HDFC gained 0.5% while SBI was up 0.4%.