Market Live: Sensex opens higher, Nifty above 10,350; midcap index at record high

10:02 am Market Check: Benchmark indices continued to trade steady, holding on to its opening gains, while the Nifty continued to hold 10,350.

The Sensex is up 86.96 points at 33675.04, while the Nifty is up 30.20 points at 10379.00. The market breadth was positive as 1287 shares advanced against a decline of 641 shares, while 101 shares were unchanged.

Bajaj Auto, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and IndusInd Bank were the top gainers, while HUL, Adani Ports, Zee Entertainment and HUL lost the most.

Here are the top headlines at 10 am from Moneycontrol News’ Anchal Pathak

9:45 am Buzzing Stock: Shares of Bata India fell 3 percent intraday on Friday as investors turned cautious after Motilal Oswal downgraded the stock.

The broking firm downgraded the stock to sell, with a target of Rs 578, a downside of 23 percent.

The brokerage highlighted how the company’s focus has been on product premiumisation. “The intent is to expand average realization through premiumization and increase the revenue contribution of premium products from 30% to 45% in FY18. However, with subdued growth in 1HFY18, we expect the ramping up of premium products’ contribution to get pushed to FY19, with marginal margin expansion of 70bp in FY18 to 12% and 100bp thereafter to 13% in FY19,” the brokerage said in a report.

9:30 am Market Outlook: Chris Wood of CLSA said, “Investors need to ignore the short-term noise and focus on the long-term positives represented by the introduction of GST. In greed & fear’s view it is correct to assume that most of the teething problems arising from the implementation of GST will be sorted within 6-12 months.”

“If Modi remains well positioned, the rest of his first term in office is likely to be focused on generating jobs ahead of the April-May 2019 general election. There are three areas where Modi hopes to generate job growth in the next 18 months. The first, and by far the most important, is in the ramp up of affordable housing under Modi’s “Housing for All by 2022″ policy.”

9:15 am Market Opens: Frontline indices began on a positive note, with the Nifty opening above 10,350-mark. Midcap index was trading at a record high, but at par with the benchmarks.

The Sensex was up 70.74 points at 33658.82, while the Nifty is up 23.00 points at 10371.80. The market breadth was positive as 641 shares advanced, against a decline of 227 shares, while 33 shares were unchanged.

Bajaj Auto, Cipla and Bharti Infratel gained the most on both indices, while HUL, Asian Paints, Zee Entertainment and HPCL were the top losers.

The Indian rupee opened flat at 64.58 per dollar on Friday versus previous close 64.58.

Bhaskar Panda of HDFC Bank said, “The dollar had lost some sheen yesterday after FOMC minutes cautious about inflation. In Indian markets, the rupee gained on the hopes of a favourable S&P decision after Moody’s upgraded India ratings.”

“Expect USD-INR pair to trade within a range of 64.50-64.70 today with a further appreciation bias.”

Asian markets were mixed, following a relatively quiet overnight trading session as U.S. markets had been closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. Investors also kept an eye on Chinese markets, which bounced back after taking a tumble in the last session.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was lower by 0.47 percent as markets reopened for trade after a day off. Losses were seen in trading houses, banks, manufacturing and retail names. Technology stocks were a mixed picture: Nintendo rose 1.98 percent, SoftBank Group edged up 0.46 percent and Sharp was down 0.98 percent.
In the US, The Nasdaq composite eked out a record close on Wednesday, led by gains in Amazon. The tech-heavy index closed 0.1 percent higher at 6,867.36 as Amazon gained more than 1 percent. Amazon shares rose after CNBC reported the company’s cloud business is about to announce a huge health-care deal with Cerner, one of the largest health technology companies in the world. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average, meanwhile, finished lower after Federal Reserve expresses concern about the impact of the market’s sharp rise on the economy in a summary of its previous meeting.