Sensex snaps 2-day losing streak; Nifty ends week above 10,050; IOC, HPCL zoom
The market gained strength in last hour of trade on Friday amid consolidation and snapped two-day losing streak, led by recovery in most beaten down stocks like banks and auto.
Metals and oil marketing companies also led support to the market but the correction in Reliance Industries and healthcare stocks capped gains. Equity benchmarks opened lower and remained rangebound till recovery in the latter part of the session.
The 30-share BSE Sensex recovered more than 200 points from the day’s low to end up 87.53 points at 32,325.41 while the 50-share NSE Nifty closed near its record high, up 52.75 points at 10,066.40 despite weak market breadth and sluggish global cues. About 1,388 shares declined against 1,204 advancing shares on the BSE.
Experts feel the holding of 10,000-mark by Nifty could be on hopes of better September quarter earnings, especially after stable June quarter numbers (which were expected to be weak). Positive monsoon forecast is also expected to support the growth, they said.
The Indian Meteorological Department said actual cumulative area weighted rainfall for the country as a whole till August 2, equalled normal rainfall and monsoon activity would pick up in next three to four days.
For the week, the Sensex was up 0.04 percent and the Nifty gained 0.5 percent.
IOC was biggest gainer among Nifty stocks, up 8 percent after analysts gave thumbs up to Q1 earnings. Its market capitalisation crossed Rs 2 lakh crore, overtaking ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and L&T.
HPCL also gained 9 percent after better-than-expected revenue and gross refining margin in Q1. BPCL, too, rallied 5.7 percent.
Meanwhile, the government will divest stake in BPCL, NTPC, GAIL, NLC, NHPC, L&T, SJVN and Indian Bank via a new ETF Bharat-22 announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
All sectoral indices barring Pharma closed in green. Nifty Bank recovered over 200 points to end up 0.62 percent at 24,827.45.
Vedanta, Eicher Motors, SBI, HUL, Hero Motocorp, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, NTPC, Hindalco, Ambuja Cements and Coal India gained 1-3 percent whereas Reliance Industries was down 1.7 percent.
The Nifty Pharma index was down 0.9 percent as Dr Reddy’s Labs, Aurobindo Pharma and Sun Pharma dropped up to 3.6 percent after Israel-based Teva missed earnings estimates, blaming the poor performance on a saturation of the US generic drug market. Biocon shares fell nearly 5 percent on 10 observations from USFDA for Bengaluru plant.
M&M closed flat after Q1 earnings missed analysts’ estimates, with profit falling 20 percent YoY, impacted by GST and BS3 norms.
The BSE Midcap index was up 0.66 percent as M&M Financials, PNB Housing Finance, Equitas Holdings, L&T Finance Holdings, Dwarikesh Sugar, Triveni Engineering, Bata, Titan Company and Repco Home Finance gained up to 10 percent.
However, MRF, Ceat, Apollo Tyres, CDSL, Jindal Steel & Power and HDIL were under pressure.
Asian markets ended mixed amid earnings disappointments, and political risk in the US. European markets were moderately higher at the time of writing this article.
