Sensex, Nifty extend intraday gains

The market extended gains and hit fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:16 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 336.45 points or 0.91% at 37,501.61. The Nifty 50 index was up 96.75 points or 0.86% at 11,341.45.

The indices opened higher and firmed up in mid-morning trade. Indices turned range bound in early afternoon trade. Indices firmed up once again and hit fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade. The Sensex rose 351.42 points, or 0.95% at the day's high of 37,516.58 in mid-afternoon trade. The index rose 154.45 points, or 0.42% at the day's low of 37,319.61 in early trade. The Nifty rose 98.70 points, or 0.88% at the day's high of 11,343.40 in mid-afternoon trade. The index rose 49.85 points, or 0.44% at the day's low of 11,294.55 in early trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.93%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.12%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was tilted in favour of buyers. On BSE, 1751 shares rose and 825 shares fell. A total of 135 shares were unchanged.

Auto stocks were mixed. TVS Motor Company (up 1.30%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 0.62%), Bajaj Auto (up 0.43%) and Maruti Suzuki India (up 0.38%), edged higher. Eicher Motors (down 0.01%), Tata Motors (down 0.36%), Ashok Leyland (down 0.37%), Hero MotoCorp (down 0.52%) and Escorts (down 0.59%), edged lower.

Most realty shares rose. Sobha (up 3.13%), Peninsula Land (up 2.82%), Godrej Properties (up 1.17%), Sunteck Realty (up 1.17%), Oberoi Realty (up 0.81%), DLF (up 0.74%), Unitech (up 0.72%), Mahindra Lifespace Developers (up 0.62%), Parsvnath Developers (up 0.39%), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 0.21%) and Prestige Estates Projects (up 0.12%), edged higher. Phoenix Mills (down 0.28%), Omaxe (down 0.31%), D B Realty (down 0.73%), Anant Raj (down 0.93%) and Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) (down 1.42%), edged lower.

On the macro front, the Indian service sector remained in expansion territory for the second consecutive month in July. The seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index posted above the neutral 50.0 threshold for the second consecutive month in July. Moreover, rising from 52.6 in June to 54.2 in July, the latest reading signalled the strongest rate of output growth since October 2016. Favourable demand conditions were cited by panellists as the key factor behind the latest upturn. The data was unveiled during trading hours today, 3 August 2018.

Overseas, European equities were trading higher helped by a rally in banking shares after Royal Bank of Scotland Group announced plans to resume payouts. Asian stocks were mixed. The mood was cautious amid an elevation in trade tensions between the US and China. The trade war between the world's top two economies intensified midweek after US President Donald Trump raised pressure on China by proposing a higher 25% tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. China reportedly responded on Thursday, saying that it was fully prepared to defend the interests of the people and free trade.

Investors were also cautious ahead of the July US jobs report due later on Friday, which will give a reading on the health of the world's largest economy and possible clues about the pace of Federal Reserve interest rate rises.

US stocks ended a rocky session decidedly higher on the back of a record rally by Apple that took the iPhone maker to a market cap above $1 trillion, a runup that helped Wall Street set aside bothering trade issues between the US and China.

On the US data front, initial jobless claims rose by 1,000 in the latest week, however they were near their lowest levels since the 1970s. The report comes a day ahead of the highly anticipated July jobs report. Separately, factory orders rose 0.7% in June.

Investors also digested the latest moves from the Bank of England (BoE), which pushed interest rates above their financial crisis lows on Thursday but signalled it was in no hurry to raise them further with an uncertain Brexit on the horizon. BoE raised its main interest rate by 25 basis points to 0.75%, as had been expected.

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