Sensex hits fresh intraday high

The BSE Sensex hit fresh intraday high, while the Nifty was hovering near the day's high in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:18 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 318.87 points or 0.85% at 37,982.43. The Nifty 50 index was up 89.25 points or 0.78% at 11,474.30. Positive global cues boosted trading sentiment.

After a gap-up opening, the Nifty firmed up and hit fresh intraday high in early-afternoon trade. The Sensex extended gains and hit fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade. The Sensex rose 333.36 points, or 0.89% at the day's high of 37,996.92 in mid-afternoon trade. The index rose 176.60 points, or 0.47% at the day's low of 37,840.16 in early trade. The Nifty rose 95.20 points, or 0.84% at the day's high of 11,480.25 in early afternoon trade. The index rose 46.75 points, or 0.41% at the day's low of 11,431.80 in early trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.76%, underperforming the Sensex. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.85%, matching the Sensex's gains in percentage terms.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1634 shares rose and 969 shares fell. A total of 156 shares were unchanged.

Most capital goods shares rose. Punj Lloyd (up 7.44%), AIA Engineering (up 2.86%), BEML (up 1.98%), Bharat Electronics (up 1.96%), Jindal Saw (up 1.67%), SKF India (up 1.40%), GE Power India (up 1.22%), Bharat Heavy Electricals (up 1.10%), ABB India (up 1.01%), Suzlon Energy (up 0.97%), Lakshmi Machine Works (up 0.74%), Praj Industries (up 0.63%) and Siemens (up 0.24%), edged higher. Crompton Greaves (down 0.25%), GE T&D India (down 0.57%), Thermax (down 0.59%), Havells India (down 0.62%) and Reliance Defence and Engineering (down 1.86%), edged lower.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was up 0.65%.

Most auto stocks declined. TVS Motor Company (down 0.6%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 0.35%), Bajaj Auto (down 0.19%), Eicher Motors (down 0.19%), Escorts (down 0.13%) and Hero MotoCorp (down 0.11%), edged lower. Mahindra & Mahindra (up 1.09%) and Tata Motors (up 2.29%), edged higher.

Commercial vehicles major Ashok Leyland was up 1.82%. The company announced during trading hours today, 17 August 2018, the winning of an order from Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) for the supply of 300 Ashok Leyland buses. The order is for double-decker buses which will help in decongesting the busy roads of Dhaka. This procurement is against a tender under Indian Line of Credit. The delivery will take place within eight months from now.

On the economic front, India's monetary policy committee members had cited possible risks of inflation in the second-half of the year as key driver for rate hike in August, according to minutes of the meeting released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday. Five out of 6 members voted for a rate hike at the August meeting and to retained its neutral policy stance amid various uncertainties on the growth front.

The minutes show that the impact of financial market volatility, currency and trade wars was looked at both from the growth and inflation angles. The five members who voted for a rate hike believed that spillovers from trade wars have the potential to infuse greater volatility into the domestic inflation print. The twelfth meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was held from 30 July 2018 to 1 August 2018 at the Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai.

Overseas, European shares were trading 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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