Rupee appreciation, value buying lift Indian equities (Roundup)

Rupee appreciation, firm global cues and value buying, lifted the Indian equity markets on Friday.

The key indices, which opened on a buoyant note in sync with their Asian peers, edged up to hit their highest levels in around two weeks time, and closed with gains of around one per cent each.

In terms on year-on-year (YoY) basis the two key indices closed between 1.95 per cent and 3 per cent higher, with nearly a third of the gains coming on the last few days of trading.

"Market managed to close the last trading session of the year 2016 in a green zone, on the back of firm global cues," SMC Global Securities said in a commentary to IANS.

The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) gained 82.20 points or 1.01 per cent to 8,185.80 points.

The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 26,441.51 points, closed at 26,626.46 points -- up 260.31 points or 0.99 per cent from the previous day's close at 26,366.15 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 26,678.60 points and a low of 26,406.53 points during the intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth was tilted in favour of the bulls -- with 1,739 advances and 879 declines.

On Wednesday, the equity markets surged due to short-covering and value buying on the back of futures and options (F&O) expiry.

The barometer index was up 155.47 points or 0.59 per cent, whereas the NSE Nifty gained 68.75 points or 0.86 per cent.

"Markets began the new January 2017 near-month derivative series on a positive note as the Nifty rallied on Friday to close with gains for the fourth consecutive session," Deepak Jasani, Head - Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.

"The Nifty gained 2.5 per cent for the week but ended 0.5 per cent lower for the month."

The equities markets further got a boost from rupee appreciation. It strengthened by 18 paise to 67.93 against a US dollar from its previous close of 68.11 to a greenback.

"Tailing its previous session gains, Indian rupee once again ended the day on positive note against the dollar tracking sharp recovery in local equities and following gains in Asian currencies markets," the stock brokerage firm SMC pointed out.

"Overseas US dollar has witnessed weakness in overnight session as traders lock some profit at higher levels after a sharp rally was seen in dollar in previous few weeks."

However, prolonged outflow of foreign funds limited the upward trend of the benchmark indices.

In terms of investments, provisional data with exchanges showed that the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold stocks worth Rs 585.64 crore, whereas the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased scrip worth Rs 725.26 crore.

According to Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, almost all sector stocks traded with firm sentiments due to short covering and fresh buying support at lower levels.

"Bearish USD/INR futures prices supported the upside of Indian equity markets throughout the session," Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, told IANS.

Sector-wise, all the 19 sub-indices of the BSE closed with gains, led by the banking index surged by 184.03 points, followed by the healthcare index, which gained 162.12 points, and the capital goods index, which rose by 139.93 points.

Major Sensex gainers on Friday were: Gail, up 3.07 per cent at Rs 437.95; Sun Pharmaceuticals, up 2.59 per cent at Rs 629.75; ITC, up 2.31 per cent at Rs 240.95; Power Grid, up 2.14 per cent at Rs 183.45; and Infosys, up 1.67 per cent at Rs 1,010.70.

Major Sensex losers were: Bajaj Auto, down 0.81 per cent at Rs 2,633.85; Dr Reddy's Lab, down 0.46 per cent at Rs 3,052; Tata Steel, down 0.34 per cent at Rs 391.10; HDFC Bank, down 0.12 per cent at Rs 1,200; and ONGC, down 0.05 per cent at Rs 191.45.

--IANS

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