Sensex surges 300 points, rupee gets a boost

Markets ended firm this Friday with 50-share Nifty ending above 5,650 on back of buying witnessed in financial shares after the central bank raised overseas borrowing limits for lenders in a bid to prop up growth and boost the rupee.

The 30-share Sensex rose 290.30 points to end at 19,270.06  and the 50-share Nifty gained 87.45 points at 5,680.40  levels. Indian financial markets are shut on Monday on account of Ganesh Chaturthi.

Reserve Bank of India on late-Thursday allowed banks to issue, without its approval, guarantees on behalf of non-residents acquiring shares or convertible debentures of a company in India through open offers or delisting or exit offers.

The broader markets ended firm with mid-caps and small-caps gaining nearly 0.5 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 2,453 stocks traded, 1,298 stocks advanced while 1,008 stocks declined on the BSE.


RUPEE

The rupee gained ground today after the slew of reforms announced by the central bank late-Thursday along with dollar sale by banks.

At 3:50PM, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 65.10 per dollar against the yesterday’s close of 66.01 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.


GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks ended cautious higher as investors await the monthly American jobs report.

Japanese shares declined, snapping a four-day winning streak, hit by profit-taking in the real estate and construction sectors as investors awaited a decision on the country's Olympic bid.

Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.5% at 13,860, Singapore’s Straits Times gained 0.3% at 3,048, China’s Shanghai Composite index rose 1% at 2,140 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.1% to 22,631 today.

European stocks were little changed, with the benchmark gauge heading for a weekly gain, as investors awaited a report on US payrolls to gauge the outlook for Federal Reserve stimulus.

France’s CAC declined 0.03% to 4,005, Germany’s DAX fell 0.2% to 8,220 while UK’s FTSE was down 0.1% to 6,527.


STOCK MOVERS

Domestically, the key sectoral indices gainers included banks, capital goods, power,  oil and gas, healthcare, pharmaceuticals while consumer durable, realty, IT sectors lead the drop on the BSE.

The gainers included counters such as ICICI Bank rising 8%, Jindal Steel added 3.5%, Cipla gained 5% while ONGC was up 5.5% on the BSE.

The laggards were Tata Power declining 3%, HUL fell 1.4%, Coal India was down 2.3% while Sesa Goa declined 2.7% the BSE.

The key notable movers included counters such as Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) surged 3% after the company said the share buyback offer will commence on September 16, 2013.

Wockhardt soared nearly 11% after the promoters purchased equity shares worth Rs 10 crore from the open market.

Jet Airways (India) surged nearly 7% in today’s trade after Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways has extend a deadline to buy a 24% stake in Jet Airways till the end of September as it expects the deal to be cleared by Indian authorities imminently.