Market Live: Nifty opens at fresh record high, Sensex rises over 100 pts

10.18 am Market check: Equity benchmarks were off day’s high in morning trade after hitting record highs in opening.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 96.97 points at 31,234.56 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 28.15 points to 9,644.25.

The broader markets also came off day’s high, up 0.4 percent on positive breadth. About two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.

Bharti Airtel was biggest gainer among Sensex stocks, up 3 percent after the telecom operator received approval from SEBI & stock exchanges for merger with Telenor India. The company filed application with National Company Law Tribunal for nod to scheme of merger.

Tata Motors, HDFC, Adani Ports, ITC and TCS were other top contributors to Sensex’ gains whereas ICICI Bank remained under pressure, down nearly a percent.

9:56 am BoJ balance sheet: The Bank of Japan hit a new milestone as its balance sheet topped 500 trillion yen (USD 4.48 trillion), roughly the same size as that of the Federal Reserve, having more than tripled since it started aggressive stimulus in 2013.

But while the central bank reached a major milestone in money printing, it is nowhere near achieving the ultimate goal of its policy, to lift inflation to 2 percent, highlighting the difficulty the BOJ is facing as the pace of its bond buying appears unsustainable.

Data from the BOJ showed its total assets rose to 500.8 trillion yen at the end of May, compared to 425.7 trillion yen a year earlier. It was 164.8 trillion yen when Governor Haruhiko Kuroda took the helm in March 2013.

9:40 am Auto sales: Bajaj Auto disappointed the Street on Friday by reporting a 10 percent decline in total sales at 3.14 lakh units for May 2017 against 3.48 lakh units in same month last year, impacted by overall performance.

Domestic sales during the month fell 15 percent year-on-year to 1.74 lakh units and exports dropped 3 percent to 1.4 lakh units.

Numbers were far lower than Nomura expectation of 3.45 lakh units for the month.

Bajaj Auto said 2-wheeler sales slipped 10 percent to 2.77 lakh units while 2-wheeler exports declined 5 percent to 1.21 lakh units YoY.

Total commercial vehicle sales were down 9 percent at 36,641 units, with domestic commercial vehicle sales down 28 percent at 17,524 units compared with same month last year.

9:25 am Buzzing: Cadila Healthcare shares gained more than 4 percent after its group company Zydus has received approval from the US health regulator for Levofloxacin injection.

Levofloxacin is the first approval from company’s Moraiya plant that received clearance from USFDA in February.

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9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks started off Friday’s session on a strong note after four-day consolidation, with the Nifty hitting fresh record high.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 132.12 points at 31,269.71 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 40.05 points to 9,656.15. About 433 shares advanced against 80 declining shares on the BSE.

Hero Motocorp, Adani Ports, Lupin, TCS, Bharti Airtel, Aurobindo Pharma and Eicher Motors were early gainers while Bajaj Auto lost 1.5 percent.

The Indian rupee has opened at 64.35 against the US dollar.

Ashutosh Raina of HDFC Bank said the USD-INR pair continued to trade strong tracking global dollar weakness and in sync with other emerging markets currencies.

However, the gains are being capped by strong intervention, he added.

Raina expects the currency pair to trade in the 64.20-64.60 a dollar range today.
Positive global cues also supported the market. Asian markets were mostly in the green, after the release of strong private payrolls stateside and as President Donald Trump announced the US would be withdrawing from the Paris climate accord.