Sensex zooms 519 points, Nifty ends above 8,300 on BoJ stimulus

Markets hit fresh record highs on Friday tracking sharp gains in Japanese shares with the benchmark Nikkei hitting a seven-year high after a surprising move by the Bank of Japan which announced expansion of its monetary easing measures.

The 30-share Sensex ended gaining 519 points at a fresh closing high of 27,865 for the second straight session and the 50-share Nifty ended at a record closing high of 8,322 gaining 153 points.

Foreign institutional investors turned aggressive buyers in Indian equities after they remained net buyers to the tune of Rs 1,257 crore on Thursday.

     
In the broader market, both BSE Mid cap gained 1.2% while and Small cap have gained around 1%.
 
The market breadth ended positive with 1,780 gainers against 1,211 losers.
 
Global markets:
Shares in Japan surged the most in the Asia-Pacific region on Friday and the benchmark Nikkei ended at seven-year high after the Bank of Japan surprisingly expanded its monetary easing measures in an effort to boost the economy which was saddled by the sales tax hike. The Nikkei jumped 755.56 points or 4.83% to end at 16,413.76, its highest level since 7 November 2007 when it had ended at 16,096.68.
Chinese shares gained on hopes of further support measures for the economy from the government. The Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng indices gained around 1.2% each.
 
European markets have opened upbeat on BoJ surprise move to substantially expand its bond buying program which is likely to increase liquidity in the global equity market. FTSE is up around 1% while CAC 40  has gained the most at 1.9% and DAX  index is up around 1.5%.
 
 
Sectors and stocks:
BSE Capital Goods index closed highest with gains of around 2.6% followed by Oil & Gas index closing up around 2.3% along with IT, Metal and Power indices with close to 2% gains. BSE Auto, Healthcare and Bankex indices gained between 1.4 to 1.7% each. FMCG sector gained the least at 0.4% while BSE Consumer Durables alone closed low by around 3.1% dragged by Titan shares which have lost close to 6.5% after reporting a lower than expected performance in the July-September quarter.
 
Among Sensex heavyweights, HDFC and L&T gained close to 4% each.
 
Among metal shares, Tata Steel closed up around 3.5% while Sesa Sterlite and Hindalco gained around 1% each.
 
IT stocks gained on positive economic data in US, the biggest outsourcing market for the Indian IT firms. Infosys was among the biggest gainer with an advance of around 2.2% followed by TCS at around 1.5% and Wipro gained around 1%.
 
Among bank shares, SBI, Axis Bank and HDFC closed with gains of around 2% each while ICICI Bank gained around 1% after paring losses.
 
IDFC Limited gained above 5% after receiving its board's approval to demerge its financial undertaking into its wholly-owned step down subsidiary IDFC Bank Ltd, as per a stock market disclosure.
 
Among oil & gas shares, ONGC and Reliance gained around 2.2% each. GAIL gained around 3.7%  after reporting better-than-expected 42% year-on-year (yoy) jump in net profit at Rs 1,303 crore for the second quarter ended September 2014 (Q2), on back of strong operational performance. The state-owned company had profit of Rs 916 crore in previous year quarter.
 
 ONGC and GAIL are also set to benefit after the government decided to abolish the policy in effect since 1984 which required public sector oil & gas companies to give preference to domestic vendors  even if their bids were higher up to 10% than their foreign competitors. Since the abolition of Administered Pricing Mechanism (APM) the additional costs were being absorbed by state owned oil & gas companies.
 
Among pharma shares, Sun Pharma and Cipla gained 2-2.7% each while Dr Reddy’s Lab closed with gain of 1.8%.
 
ITC rebounded after its shares declined on the release of its second quarter earnings and closed flat. ITC matched street expectations with the second quarter net profit climbing 8.7% year-on-year to Rs 2,425 crore supported by other income and higher revenue. The profit in the year-ago period was Rs 2,230.5 crore.
 
Among auto shares, Maruti Suzuki  gained around 3% as a series of new launches are expected to firm up sales for the company and Tata Motors closed up around 1.7%.
 
Automaker Mahindra and Mahindra closed with a gain of 1.8%. It posted a 4% drop in second-quarter net profit, missing analyst estimates, after a poor and delayed monsoon hit demand for its tractors.
 
Further, Maruti Suzuki and Axis Bank joined the club of companies with market capitalisation of one lakh crore or more. 
 
Shares of real estate and infrastructure companies closed higher, extending their previous day’s rally, on the news that the government had relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) rules in the construction sector by reducing minimum built up area as well as capital requirement and easing exit norms.
 
Bharti Airtel alone lost around 2.3% because its performance in the September quarter has been rather muted, as the African market continues to be a drag. Seasonally, the second quarter is known to be weak for the company, but the contraction in voice revenues and realisations has been far more pronounced.
 
Among other shares, OnMobile Global gained around 19% mainly on account of improved cash and cash equivalent position in the July- September quarter at Rs 289.8 crore from Rs 146.3 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. This was primarily due to cash proceeds from the sale of Voxmobili, improved collections and better working capital management.
 
Shares of Marksans Pharma surged  around 4% after reporting a strong 56% year-on-year jump in net profit at Rs 31.16 crore for the quarter ended September 2014 (Q2), on back of healthy sales. The pharmaceutical company had profit of Rs 20 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.