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Markets extended gains led by financial shares on hopes of a rate cut by the central bank at its policy meet on Monday.
At 10AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 204 points at 19,031and the 50-share Nifty was up 64 points at 5,763.
Consumer Durables index was the top sectoral gainer on the BSE up 2.3% followed by Auto, Realty, Capital Goods, Bankex, Oil and Gas indices.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was up 2% at Rs 806 on short covering after the recent correction post the company's AGM. ONGC was up 1.3%.
In the financials space, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI were up 1.5-2.5% each on hopes that the central bank may ease key policy rates.
Other Sensex gainers include, ITC, Tata Motors and Larsen & Toubro.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 1% each.
Market breadth continued to remain strong with 942 gainers and 281 losers on the BSE.
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(Updated at 9:20hrs)
Markets opened on a positive note this Friday on back of short covering witnessed in consumer durables and bank stocks after benchmark indices dropped for three consecutive trading sessions.
At 9:15AM, the 30-share Sensex rose 132.67 points at 18,959.83 and the 50-share Nifty gained 49.85 points at 5,748.95 levels.
Investors, however, traded a bit cautiously ahead of wholesale price inflation (WPI) data scheduled later in the day which is expected to remain in the central bank’s comfort level of 5 per cent.
An easing inflation will provide RBI more elbow-room to reduce interest rates in the June 17 monetary policy review.
Rupee added some respite in the opening session today. The local currency was trading at 57.73 against US dollar on the Interbank Foreign Exchange Market. Yesterday it had closed at 57.99 helped by dollar sales from a corporate and exporters.
Asian stocks rebounded, after the regional benchmark index yesterday erased this year’s gain, as US economic data beat estimates and on bets the Federal Reserve will keep its record stimulus.
Reports on Thursday showed that US retail sales climbed the most in three months and the number of claims for jobless benefits dropped by 12,000 last week.
Globally, the Nikkei rose 2.6% to 12,788, Singapore Straits Times rose 1% to 3,158, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1% to 21,083 while China’s Shanghai Composite index was up 0.2% at 2,152.
Back home, the key sectoral gainers included counters such as banks, consumer durables, automobile while software makers dropped on the BSE.
The gainers included counters such as Tata Motors and Tata Power rose 1.5%, Maruti Suzuki gained 1.3%, Tata Steel was up 1.6% , Reliance Industries rose 1% while ICICI Bank gained 1.2% on the BSE.
The laggards included names like TCS and Wipro fell 1% and 0.1% on the BSE.
The broader markets traded positively with mid-caps and small-caps rising 0.2 per cent each on the BSE.
The market breadth was firm. Out of 373 stocks traded so far,312 stocks advanced while 55 declined on the BSE.
