Global cues, banking, metal stocks lift Indian equity indices (Roundup)

Firm global markets along with healthy buying in banking, metal and capital goods stocks lifted the key Indian equity indices on Friday.

According to market analysts, better-than-expected quarterly earnings also supported the indices.

The wider Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange closed at 10,806.50 points, up 89.95 points or 0.84 per cent from the previous close.

Similarly, the barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE ended in the green. It had opened at 35,287.99 points and closed at 35,535.79 points -- up 289.52 points or 0.82 per cent.

The Sensex touched a high of 35,596.15 and a low of 35,262.06 points during the intra-day trade.

However, the BSE market breadth was bearish with 1,542 declines and 1,123 advances.

"Key benchmark indices opened higher and firmed up as the day progressed to finally close with gains of over 0.50 per cent," said Abhijeet Dey, Senior Fund Manager, Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund.

He said: "Globally, the sentiment turned risk-on as softer US inflation alleviated worries of a faster rate hike in the country and geo-political tensions ebbed with both the US and North Korea looking to reduce tensions in the region."

According to Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities, positive Asian markets and overnight gains on Wall Street helped the Indian equities.

"Encouraging earnings announcements by Indian corporates also helped improve sentiments," Jasani told IANS.

On the currency front, the Indian rupee weakened by 2 paise to 67.33 against the US dollar from its previous close at 67.31.

Provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors sold scrips worth Rs 325.44 crore while the domestic institutional investors purchased stocks worth Rs 1,163.35 crore.

Sector-wise, the S&P BSE banking index surged by 331.14 points, metal stocks rose by 216.26 points and the capital goods stocks edged up by 190.73 points.

On the other hand, the S&P BSE consumer durables index fell by 265.61 points, the healthcare stocks dropped by 104.55 points and the telecom stocks ended 53.91 points lower.

The major gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints, up 6.17 per cent at Rs 1,289.60; Tata Steel, up 2.17 per cent at Rs 606.65; Larsen and Toubro, up 1.69 per cent at Rs 1,387.05; Yes Bank, up 1.52 per cent at Rs 349.95; and HDFC, up 1.50 per cent at Rs 1,924.35 per share.

The top losers were Bharti Airtel, down 6.44 per cent at Rs 385.70; Sun Pharma, down 5.05 per cent at Rs 471.85; Tata Motors (DVR), down 1.69 per cent at Rs 194.90; Tata Motors, down 0.78 per cent at Rs 330.75; and Hero MotoCorp, down 0.74 per cent at Rs 3,616.15 per share.

--IANS

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