Sensex, Nifty log modest gains

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Domestic stocks ended with modest gains, mirroring strength in global stock markets, supported by strong US jobs data and a dovish tone by the US Federal Reserve. The Sensex settled below 36,000 mark after crossing that level in morning trade. The indices opened higher and extended gains in morning trade. Indices pared gains in early afternoon trade. Benchmarks turned range bound in mid-afternoon trade. Indices further pared gains in late trade.

The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 155.06 points or 0.43% to settle at 35,850.16. The index hit high of 36,076.95 and low of 35,809.23 in intraday trade.

The Nifty 50 index rose 49.25 points or 0.46% to settle at 10,776.60. The index hit high of 10,835.95 and low of 10,750.15 in intraday trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.03%. The BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.06%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1314 shares rose and 1287 shares fell. A total of 204 shares were unchanged.

Among the sectoral indices on BSE, the S&P BSE Realty index (up 1.55%), the S&P BSE Telecom index (up 1.26%), the S&P BSE IT index (up 1.11%) outperformed the Sensex. The S&P BSE Metal index (down 0.17%), the S&P BSE Capital Goods index (down 0.11%), the S&P BSE Healthcare index (down 0.39%) underperformed the Sensex.

Axis Bank (up 2.84%), Tata Motors (up 2.64%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 1.54%), NTPC (up 1.51%) and Power Grid Corporation of India (up 1.07%) were the major Sensex gainers.

Bajaj Auto (down 2.82%), Yes Bank (down 1.35%), Hero MotoCorp (down 1.11%) and Bajaj Finance (down 1.03%) were the major Sensex losers.

ONGC rose 1.3%. ONGC Videsh (OVL), the wholly owned subsidiary and overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), has registered a significant discovery of oil in its onshore block CPO-5, Colombia, in Llanos Basin. OVL, which is operator, holds 70% stake in the block along with its Partner Petrodorado South America S.A. Sucursal (PDSA), Colombia (30%). OVL has a significant presence in Colombian Oil & Gas sector and holds PI in 6 exploratory blocks in addition to a producing 50% joint venture company, Mansarovar Energy Colombia (MECL). The announcement was made on Saturday, 5 January 2019.

Infosys rose 1.57%. Infosys will announce Q3 December 2018 results on Friday, 11 January 2019.

TCS rose 1.21%. TCS will announce Q3 December 2018 results on Thursday, 10 January 2019.

Titan Company rose 1.61%. Titan Company said that the company continued the good growth momentum across all businesses in the seasonally strong third quarter, demonstrating the inherent strength of virtually all the brands in its portfolio, and the strong connect with consumers. The company remains focused to deliver good and broad based growth across all brands and channels while enhancing the capabilities and capacity in the company for the long-term growth. The aggressive retail network roll out during the year has led to the retail network crossing the 2 million sq. ft. mark during the quarter. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 4 January 2019.

Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) rose 1.26%. The company created a new benchmark of successfully commissioning a 800 MW thermal unit within a record time of 46 months. This is a marked improvement over the time taken in commissioning of 800 MW sets till date in the country by various developers. Following the successful commissioning in record time by Bhel, the power plant has attained commercial operation. The announcement was made on Saturday, 5 January 2019.

Sobha gained 2.65%. Sobha announced that during the third quarter, it achieved new sales volume of 908,824 square feet total valued at Rs 698.80 crore with an average realisation of Rs 7,669 per square feet (Sobha share of sales value is at Rs 600.20 crore with an average realisation of Rs 6,599 per square feet). The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 4 January 2019.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 69.6625, compared with closing of 69.7250 during the previous trading session.

In global commodities markets, Brent crude oil futures edged higher. Brent for March 2019 settlement was up $1.69 a barrel at $58.75 a barrel.

Meanwhile, the provisional figures of Direct Tax collections up to December, 2018 show that gross collections are at Rs 8.74 lakh crore which is 14.1% higher than the gross collections for the corresponding period of last year. Refunds amounting to Rs 1.30 lakh crore have been issued during April 2018 to December 2018, which is 17% higher than refunds issued during the same period in the preceding year. Net collections (after adjusting for refunds) have increased by 13.6% to Rs 7.43 lakh crore during April - December 2018. The net Direct Tax collections represent 64.7% of the total Budget Estimates of Direct Taxes for FY 2018-19 (Rs 11.50 lakh crore).

An amount of Rs 3.64 lakh crore has been collected as Advance Tax, which is 14.5% higher than the Advance Tax collections during the corresponding period of last year. The growth rate of Corporate Advance Tax is 12.5% and that of PIT Advance Tax is 23.8%.

Overseas, shares in Europe and Asia advanced on Monday as a dovish turn by the Federal Reserve and startlingly strong US jobs data soothed some of the market's worst fears about the global outlook.

Investor sentiment also picked up slightly ahead of a round of trade negotiations between the United States and China in Beijing. The US and China will hold vice ministerial level trade talks in Beijing on January 7-8, according to the Chinese commerce ministry.

US stocks surged higher on Friday, buoyed by a better-than-expected jobs report for December and dovishly interpreted remarks by the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the US economy added 312,000 jobs in December. The surge in hiring was the largest since February.

Investor optimism was further reinforced by comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who said during a Friday morning appearance that the jobs report didn't materially increase concerns over rising inflation, while reiterating that the central bank would continue to keep an open mind about how much it will raise interest rates in 2019 and how aggressively it will shrink its balance sheet, based on incoming data about the US and global economy, including recent weakness in equity markets.

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