Firmness prevailed on the bourses in afternoon trade on sustained buying demand in index pivotals. At 13:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 659.60 points or 1.92% at 35,091.57. The Nifty 50 index was up 203.35 points or 1.96% at 10,583.80. Trading sentiment got a boost amid fall in global crude prices and rising rupee. Positive global cues also triggered buying. The Sensex was currently trading above the psychologically important 35,000 mark after moving above and below that level in intraday trade.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.66%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.53%.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1776 shares rose and 718 shares fell. A total of 121 shares were unchanged.
Vedanta (up 6.39%), Yes Bank (up 5.33%), Tata Motors (up 5.29%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 5.27%) and Hero MotoCorp (up 4.92%) edged higher from the Sensex pack.
Wipro (down 1.62%), Infosys (down 0.36%) and TCS (down 0.32%) edged lower from the Sensex pack.
Bajaj Auto was up 3.63% after the company reported 32% growth in its total vehicles sales to 5.06 lakh units in October 2018 over October 2017. Bajaj Auto's total domestic sales rose 29% to 3.19 lakh units, while total exports rose 38% to 1.86 lakh units in October 2018 over October 2017. The announcement was made during market hours today, 2 November 2018.
In the global commodities markets, Brent for January 2019 settlement was off 10 cents at $72.79 a barrel. The contract had fallen $2.15 a barrel or 2.87% to settle at $72.89 a barrel during the previous trading session.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 72.685, compared with its close of 73.455 during the previous trading session.
Overseas, Asia shares were trading higher on Friday on the back of Wall Street gains and comments from US President Donald Trump indicating potential progress in his trade negotiations with China.
US stocks rallied to close higher Thursday, with the S&P 500 gaining for its third straight session for the first time in six weeks, on cautious optimism that US-China trade tensions could ease in the near term.
Stocks added modestly to their gains after President Donald Trump, in a Thursday morning tweet, hinted at progress in early trade talks with China. The president also said in his morning tweet that trade "discussions are moving along nicely" and meetings between the two leaders at the upcoming G-20 summit are being scheduled.
On the US data front, the ISM manufacturing index fell to a six-month low of 57.7%. Respondents cited rising costs as a concern. The IHS Markit final US Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index printed at 55.7 for October, up slightly from 55.6 in September. A reading of at least 50 indicates improving conditions.
Nonfarm productivity growth grew at a 2.1% annualized rate in the third quarter. Unit labor costs rose by 1.2%.
The number of newly unemployed Americans seeking jobless benefits fell in the seven days ended 27 October to 212,000.
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