Market holds firm

Firmness prevailed on the bourses in afternoon trade on sustained buying demand in index pivotals. At 13:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 283.11 points or 0.75% at 37,946.67. The Nifty 50 index was up 81.25 points or 0.71% at 11,466.30. Positive global cues boosted trading sentiment.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.63%, underperforming the Sensex. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.77%, outperforming the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1604 shares rose and 922 shares fell. A total of 152 shares were unchanged.

Vedanta (up 3.26%), Yes Bank (up 3.17%), Tata Steel (up 2.43%), ITC (up 2.28%) and Tata Motors (up 2.21%) edged higher from the Sensex pack.

Bharti Airtel (down 0.74%), ONGC (down 0.67%) and Coal India (down 0.37%) edged lower from the Sensex pack.

IT major TCS was up 0.14%. The company was awarded a new contract by the Improvement Service, the national organisation for improving local government services and digital transformation in Scotland. TCS will continue to deliver a digital platform for the award-winning authentication "myaccount" service and its broader portfolio, providing Scottish households with beneficial online public services. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 16 August 2018.

Overseas, European shares were trading slightly higher while most Asian shares rose after China and the United States agreed to hold their first trade talks since June, next week and as the Turkish lira extended gains from its record low earlier this week.

US stocks rallied to close higher Thursday, on strong corporate earnings from Walmart Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. News that the US and China are prepared to resume trade talks next week also bolstered investors' sentiment.

On the data front, initial jobless claims, a measure of layoffs in the US, fell in early August and returned near a post-recession low. New claims declined by 2,000 to 212,000 in the seven days from August 5 to August 11. The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index sank to a 21-month low of 11.9 in August. Construction of new houses increased by less than 1% in July, reflecting a recent slowdown in building that is likely tied to higher mortgage rates and growing shortages of skilled craftsmen.

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